TPN Residential Rental Monitor

TPN Residential Rental Monitor Q4 2013

The final quarter of 2013 saw a worsening in residential rental performance, marking a worrisome change in tenant payment behaviour for the first time in nearly three years. This reversal is a sudden change for landlords and property managers who have been enjoying an unusually long period of improving rental payments, culminating in Q2 and 3 of 2013 with 86% of tenants deemed to be in good standing.

While this figure slipped in Q4 2013 to 85%, it is noteworthy that 72% of tenants remained in the Paid on Time category. Tenants who Paid Late dropped slightly from 10% to 9% - with a consistent 4% remaining in the Grace Period. The deterioration is however reflected in the movement of tenants who Paid Late to the Partially Paid segment, highlighting a growing multitude of over-indebted consumers who find themselves unable to make full and timeous payments on their credit and monthly living expenses. The decline may be slight, but nonetheless could be seen as an early warning sign of trouble ahead.

TPN Commercial Rental Monitor Q4 2013

Property owners, landlords and investors in the commercial sector will probably not be surprised that the numbers for Q4 of 2013 indicate a drop-off in rent paid on time and in full. After all, the last quarter of every year seems to be traditionally a more testing time for commercial rent collection everywhere. TPN’s Commercial Rental Monitor, which covers office, retail and industrial rentals across South Africa, showed 81% of commercial tenants in good standing for this period. Good standing refers to the grouping of tenants combined from the following categories: Paid on time (57%), paid in the grace period (8%) and paid late (15%). Overall, late payments continue to pose a challenge nationally, as nearly 1 in 4 tenants paid rent after the due date, with the most negatively affected regions being the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal where more than 1 in 3 tenants are consistently late payers.

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