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Help us track Cape Town’s affordability crisis

Capetonians: Daily Maverick needs your help! Head to Daily Maverick Connect to help Rebecca Davis quantify the city's affordability crisis. We’re looking for documentation from the last 10 years to compare with today’s costs.

The Bo-Kaap area in Cape Town, South Africa. Debates are raging about the impact that digital nomads and short-term rentals are having on Cape Town’s rental costs and property prices. (Photo: Supplied) The Bo-Kaap area in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Supplied)
Daily Maverick Connect
By Daily Maverick Connect
27 Jan 2026
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It feels like everyone in Cape Town is having the same conversation these days: just how unaffordable this city is becoming for ordinary residents.

Do you have old rates and utilities statements from the past decade which you could submit alongside your current ones for a cost comparison? If you’re a tenant who has been living in the same place for a while, can you show us how your rent has increased (or not increased)?

Join the conversation and help Rebecca Davis investigate on Daily Maverick Connect.

Comments

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Glyn Morgan Jan 27, 2026, 02:25 PM

Sad, but it is the cost of success and an extraordinary population rise, self-made or immigrants to the city. The only way out is to vote for a tech-savy party and the only one we have is the DA.

Just another Comment Jan 28, 2026, 08:12 AM

Disagree. You've heard about absolute power. Right? And it gives the DA to do as it pleases with no comeback while Cape Townians get hammered. And the ones who gets hammered the most are those who can afford the crazy increases to keep all those who don't pay afloat....until those who can no longer afford it. The DA has created an unsustainable model and Cape Town needs new blood with creativity, ideas, empathy and an understanding of sustainability. It's time for the old guard to step aside.

Michael Cinna Jan 28, 2026, 02:12 PM

All the metrics disagree with you - CT swallows the majority of FDI and consistently outperforms the national average, largest concentration of development, highest standard of living, semigration/immigration numbers et al. The business model is clearly working. Poor people getting hammered is a national problem that requires competent national policymaking. Unfortunately, we're not a federal republic which would decentralize power. We can thank the ANC for tanking that suggestion in the 90s

Giovanni Ghignone Jan 28, 2026, 04:07 PM

How would you propose to curb the house prices in Cape Town? While I empathise with first-time buyers, the principle of supply and demand is what's to blame, not the DA. Developers will try maximise profits, and asking government to regulate property prices is a slippery slope.

Aysha Salie Jan 29, 2026, 03:53 PM

There are creative ways to help, but the first stop is for the DA to understand and empathise with the local population. I don't see any sign of that. Also, it is possible to restrict foreign property and land ownership. This has got out of hand in CT and something should be done. CT is not just about the beauty of the natural surroundings but also about the local population that give it character and colour. If we can't afford to live there the city will be soulless.

Michael Cinna Jan 30, 2026, 03:11 PM

By getting government out of the way. Government owns roughly over 9500 football fields of underutilized or vacant land in the City of Cape Town alone. Government is the problem not the solution.

Lindy Gaye Jan 28, 2026, 05:42 PM

Any suggestions as to who this new blood might be?