High Rise And High Levies: R70 000/year Incinerated

Here's a 3 bed apartment on sale in Mutual Heights for a hair under R3 million. It's pretty big (244 m2) but the levies and rates would make you think it was even bigger.

If you buy this place be prepared to pay rates of R1 600 and levies of R4 376 for a combined outlay of R5 976. That's over R70 000 a year that disappears into the air. You'll need at least 2% capital appreciation just to break even on that!

High Rise And High Levies

Here's a 104m2 2 bed apartment in the CBD on the market for a hair under R2m. Now you can probably negotiate the price down but what you can't negotiate down is the rates of R893/month and levies of R3285/month.

That's an eye watering R4 178/month! Over R50 000/year! More than 2.5% of the current asking value of the property evaporated every year.

Lord help you if they ever need to put in a special levy for urgent repairs.