Concern over high commercial property rates

Expensive to do business in eThekwini

- THAMI MAGUBANE

CONCERNS have been raised about the high commercial property rates charged by the eThekwini Municipality in comparison to the City of Cape Town and the City of Johannesburg.

Publicly available information indicates that eThekwini Municipality has the highest rates, a view echoed by the South African Property Owners Association.

Documents reveal that in the City of Cape Town, the rates randage on commercial property for the 2025/26 financial year is 0.016824, as confirmed by the city. In the City of Johannesburg, the charge for the same financial year is 0.023862. In eThekwini the rates randage stands at 3.6234 for the same year.

Councillors of the municipality and a resident, have warned that these high rates could undermine the city's efforts to attract businesses.

The South African Property Owners Association confirmed that commercial rates were high in eThekwini.

"Our data shows that eThekwini is the most expensive municipality to do business in with respect to commercial business rates."

A community member with an active interest in public policy and urban economic sustainability, who did not want to be named, said he had done a comparison of eThekwini's rates randage with other major metros in South Africa and key international benchmarks and found that the rates charged in eThekwini were markedly higher.