Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September/ October 2019 | Page 36

COMMERCIAL
How to prevent rising
council charges for inner
city properties
T
he inner–city investment case is under threat due to
the consistently above–inflation increases, that have
been imposed through council charges over the last
10 years. These increases directly affect low–income house-
holds living in the inner–city and when rentals, including
council charge recovery, become unaffordable to tenants.
“Low–income earners who are tenants of flats in the inner
city are paying similar for electricity, water and sewer charges
as families living in affluent suburbs. This is not to mention the
large areas, specifically townships, who are breaching electricity
and don’t pay council at all. The City, COJ in particular, needs to
deal with the size of the overhead and important efficiencies
in service delivery. If they collected what was due to them they
should have sufficient revenue to meet their service delivery
obligations without putting pressure on regular payers. We
need an effective and cost–efficient organisation” said Paul
Jackson, CEO of TUHF Limited, an inner–city property financier.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine