Despite a tough economy and constrained household budgets, for the third consecutive quarter more tenants are paying their rent and the number of tenants in good standing has continued to improve to 83.34%. Rental escalations are on a slow upward trajectory in response to sensitive consumers while vacancies remain high in the smaller provinces, the Western Cape being the outlier with the lowest vacancy rate of all provinces. Overall, tenants are showing signs of being willing to navigate rental escalations, but a fine balance exists between residential rental vacancies and the ability of investors to ask for higher rentals.
