The TRUTH About Renting Out Your Property in Cape Town for 6 Months
This vlog (AskRobAnything) documents Rob’s experience renting out his Cape Town apartment for six months while he and his partner stayed in the UK. He shows a walk-through on returning to the flat, lists a few minor damages (burnt plug cover, carpet stain, trickling tap) and recounts past appliance failures (fridge, geyser, washing machine). He gives a transparent financial breakdown: 19,000 ZAR/month for six months (Apr–Oct 2025) → 114,000 ZAR total; 35,454 ZAR costs during the period → net 78,546 ZAR; additional first-week expenses (~6,779 ZAR), leaving ~71,000 ZAR to fund a five-month stay (~14,353 ZAR/month). He stresses the importance of a local managing agent (10% fee ≈1,900 ZAR/month) and gives practical advice and a checklist on whether to rent a second property (threshold ≈10,000 ZAR/month profit).
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We just made 114,000 rand renting out our Cape Town apartment for six months while we were back in the UK. After paying for all the management fees and levies and so on, that meant we made a profit of 13,000 rand per month. But here's the moment of truth. What state will the apartment be in when we walk through the door? After all this year we had a new tenant. He seemed really good, he paid on time, not too many issues. But of course you never know. That's one of the risks that you take when you rent out your apartment. So in today's video I'm going to give you a complete financial breakdown, show you what we found when we returned and discuss whether this passive income strategy is actually a really good way of funding your time in your second home abroad. So in case you don't know me, I'm Rob, one half of James and Rob and I'm here in Cape Town on my own and this is our Cape Town property. Reality check. So the moment of truth. What will we find when we open the door to our Cape Town apartment? So let's head on inside. First time I've seen the place in six months. Put some lights on and at first glance everything looks really good. Look, our agent is so fantastic he left us some oranges and nuts. So quick walk around the apartment. It all looks like it is in good condition. The bedroom looks fine. I'm going to do is a deeper review and then tell you the issues that I found. And here's the bathroom. So after a bit of time settling back in, I did find a few issues that I'm not sure whether they'll be my responsibility to fix or whether they will come out of the previous tenants deposit. Some just simple things like a broken plug. He's obviously been boiling the kettle too close to this shelf and the kind of plastic cover has burnt off. And then one other thing I noticed was that there is a bit of a stain on the carpet that isn't superficial so I can't get that out. But you know what, I guess that is the general wear and tear that you have to deal with. Now I've said this before in previous videos but one of the issues we had with the tenant is that the fridge broke. So I had to end up buying a new replacement fridge because the home contents insurance wouldn't cover us for that damage. So obviously you factor that into your costs but otherwise things are looking good. I've noticed one other problem in the bathroom that is that the water is just trickling out of this tap. So I may well have to get a carpenter in to come and fix that. But you know what? All in all, the apartment looks in good condition. It's not the most beautiful of days today. You can only see the sea, but it's foggy, although it's supposed to clear up. But I have to say, there is something really lovely about coming home to your own place with things that are very familiar, as opposed to going to an Airbnb where you're A, paying a lot of money and B, you don't quite know what you are getting. So I'm going to unpack, settle in, and then I'm going to give you a full financial breakdown because the rental income that we make really funds, I would say, sort of three quarters of our trip, depending on whether we've got any large expenditure or not. So in the next section, I'm going to break down in detail the exact maths of the money coming in and the money going out. So you could see for yourself if you do have a second property or you're thinking about buying one, should you rent it out? What do the rewards outweigh the risks? So let's do that in the next section. Okay, so let me share with you some real numbers. Now, we rented the apartment out between April and October of 2025 for 19,000 Rand per month. Now bear in mind, this is the winter season, so you're going to get less during that rental period than you would in the summer. And also bear in mind that we are not allowed to have Airbnb rentals here. So our minimum is three months. And of course, when you have a long term rent, you're going to get less income than if you were having Airbnb guests. But on the other hand, you're having people that stay that are treating it like their home rather than just kind of a weekend place. So the place tends to be kept in state. So at 19,000 rand over six months, that gives a total of 114,000 rand, which is about £5,000 and about $6,500. And the costs for us that we still needed to pay during that period were 35,454 rand, which is about one and a half thousand pounds. So the net profit for renting for that period between April and October was 78,546 rand. So that's how much money we've got sitting in the account. And now when you arrive at your apartment, there is a bunch of costs in the first week. So I'M going to put those on screen now. We spend 900 on our electricity meter. That's prepaying it. We spent 579 rand on Wi Fi per month and restocking with food and cleaning essentials cost two and a half thousand. Also, I need to pay the levies for November because obviously the tenant isn't. So the levies are basically the management fees that you pay for the upkeep of the building, the security guard and so on. And the levy costs were 2,800, giving a total cost of 6,779 rand for the first week, just to kind of get everything up and running. So after those week one costs, the rental income profit that we've got remaining is about 71,000 rand. And if I spread that over the five months, which is the period of time I'm going to be staying here, then it works out about 14,353 rand per month. And as I said, that's the rental income is going to cover about 60% of our costs. Obviously we do need to be spending some additional money as well, but it's certainly covering a large percentage of our running costs while we were here. And of course it's worth saying that costs here are generally lower than they are in the uk. We don't have massive heating bills, I don't use the air conditioning that much. So it is much cheaper to stay here. And of course we're not spending the equivalent costs or the higher costs in the UK. Now, 13,000 rand profit per month sounds fantastic, but there's one reason why this works and that is having a really good property manager locally, because quite frankly, managing a property from 6,000 miles away is now impossible. So we pay our managing agent a 10% commission, which works out at 1,900 rand per month. So first of all, it includes finding the tenant that is advertising, obviously better them, doing credit checks, taking their deposit, getting them to sign the lease and doing a pre entry inspection, including taking lots of photos. And then on a month by month basis, obviously they collect the rent and they put that into my account. They also pay the levies and the city taxes for cleaning and services and so on. And they deduct everything from the rent before they transfer the money to us. And then obviously when a tenant leaves, they do an exit inspection, they deduct any costs from their deposits, such as any damage and also cleaning costs as well. And then obviously they find the next tenant. Now, when we have a tenant, the tenant pays directly for all the water usage, sewerage and their own electricity. We have a prepaid meter in the apartment. Now the critical point here is that the 1,900 we spend a month isn't really a cost, it's an investment and it enables us to not worry too much about the apartment and then it makes the income feel truly passive, whilst also knowing that things are being taken care of. And to be honest, without having a managing agent, I think it would be very, very stressful. We'd be getting calls directly from the tenants and we'd be trying to sort things out from a long distance. So it's pretty much impossible to do. So my advice to you is that if you do own a property here and you live a long way away, don't rent it out unless you have a really reliable managing agent or person that's looking after it for you. So having a local agent to look after your property is absolutely vital. But what is their threshold number that makes renting worthwhile versus leaving the apartment empty? So this year we've made 156,000 rand, which is about six and a half thousand pounds profit. But is that worthwhile? Well, as I've already said, the money that we make covers about 60% of our costs while we are here. And it also makes this two home lifestyle completely possible. You know, we're not super wealthy, but doing this makes it viable. And we calculate that within about nine years of owning this property and renting it, it would have covered all the costs of actually buying the property. And we're already into year three of that. So it's not really, you know, it's a no brainer in terms of the return on investment. But of course it also comes with stresses. If you've been following our channel for any length of time, you'll know that last year we had a geys burst which caused flooding and had to be repaired quickly. We've also had the washing machine break, we had the fridge break twice and eventually replacing it. So things do go wrong and you have to factor those costs in that. Now would those things have gone wrong if the apartment was empty? Well, maybe not. But on the other hand, if the apartment had been empty and the geyser had burst, we would have come back to a massive flood and a lot more costs and bigger problems than having a tenant here who spotted the issue immediately. So as much as we really prefer to leave the apartment empty, we can't really afford to do that. And as I said, The 13,000 we earn a month profit from the apartment makes it worthwhile for us and I think anything less than 10,000 rand profit a month would probably not make it worthwhile in terms of the hassle factor, obviously the wear and tear and also the money that we're making. So that's sort of our threshold number and you'd want to work out your threshold number if you have a property that you're thinking of renting and trying to work out whether it's a viable option or not. So kind of final checklist to work out if you should or shouldn't rent your property out. If you need the income to have this two income lifestyle, then absolutely you should do it. If you've got a fantastic property manager, then absolutely do it as well. And if there's high demand for the rental of your property, which there certainly is here, I've had absolutely no problem rented out. In fact, it's rented out for the whole of next year as well, then do rent it out. And if you're willing to deal with a little bit of stress from a long distance, then again it's worth renting out. On the other hand, you shouldn't rent your property out if you absolutely don't need the income. Then I have friends here who leave their properties empty and they have someone come in and check the property once a week while they're away, you know. And on the flip side, if you can't find a good manager or if it's difficult to rent in the area that you're in, then that's probably a clue that maybe you shouldn't be renting the property out. So I hope you found today's video useful. Interesting. Intriguing. Maybe just being a little bit nosy. I've tried to be really transparent and straightforward with all of the costs and the profits and the pros and the cons. And of course, if you enjoyed today's video, please do give us a thumbs up. Hit the subscribe button. Do leave us a comment. If you have a second property, does it work for you? But other than that. This is James who's sadly working back in Grey Cold UK and Rob or from sunny Cape Town. We will see you next Sunday.
