Here’s a fun game to play when friends or family visit from Jozi – ask everyone who is renting what they pay a month, and what they get in return.

Jozi folk are out there talking about two-beds with a garden, and Capetonians are paying the same for a one-bed loft where you can touch the opposite walls at the same time.

Also, pro tip – don’t try and compare salaries, that Jozi rand is powerful.

Anyway, as is to be expected, a new report comparing rental prices around the country shows that we are forking out an inordinate amount of money for the privilege of living in this city.

Conducted by jobs website Adzuna, and covered on BusinessTech, the report compares 140 000 job listings with the average rental prices in various cities, giving us the average percentage of each city’s salary that is spent on rent.

Spoiler alert – Cape Town is at the wrong end of the table.

First up, some good news for folks in these areas:

• Polokwane – 11% of monthly income spent on rent
• Bloemfontein – 16% of monthly income spent on rent
• Port Elizabeth – 17% of monthly income spent on rent
• Johannesburg – 18% of monthly income spent on rent
• East London – 19% of monthly income spent on rent

We’re happy for you.

On the other side of the table…

Capetonians can expect to put a whopping 38% of their pay cheques towards their rent while those in Sandton spend at least 37% of their wages on their monthly rent.

“It is interesting to note that Johannesburg comes up as one of the most affordable cities for renting employees,” said country manager for Adzuna SA, Jesse Green.

“The results we see here could be because employment in Johannesburg offers much higher salaries when compared with job opportunities in cities such as Bloemfontein, for example.”

You don’t say.

Here’s the table in full – can we all bow our heads and think of the people of Vanderbijlpark for a second, please:

So you Jozi folk are averaging a cool R33 261 a month, but when you come to Cape Town, you want to sleep in our non-existent spare rooms?

Dinner’s on you.

[source:businesstech]