How homeowners can tackle property financial stress effectively

When a homeowner's mortgage repayments go up by 38% over three years (2021 to 2024) while their salary has only risen about 20% in the same period, their blood pressure is going to rise right alongside their short-term debt.

Asset-rich vs cash-flow poor

For many property owners, it is a classic case of being asset-rich and cash-flow poor, says Gary Kayle, the CEO of Worth.

“It’s a precarious position, and when you add an 81% increase in electricity costs, rates and taxes rising above inflation and homeowners needing back-up power and water solutions, it’s easy to see why so many South Africans have tipped over the resilience edge.

"This is a perfect example of how financial pressure impacts the lives and well-being of South Africans, resulting in them experiencing Financial Stress Syndrome.”

Kayle was commenting on the impact of the Financial Stress Syndrome Index on property.

Financial stress

The 2025 Cumulate Financial Resilience Index highlights Financial Stress Syndrome (FSS) as a defining and widespread feature of South Africa’s financial health landscape.

Released by Cumulate on Wednesday, this report was said to move beyond traditional financial metrics to focus on the behavioural and emotional toll of chronic money pressure, which significantly affects health, wealth-building, and overall well-being.

The 2025 Cumulate Financial Resilience Index – polling 6 800 South Africans with healthy income levels – unpacked some key insights:

• 29% say money-related pressure has harmed their mental health- impacting their relationships at home, sleep, productivity at work and overall wellbeing.
• 42% are constantly worried about money, delaying corrective action and relying on short-term fixes that only deepen long-term problems.
• Only 25% feel confident about investing or building wealth. Without that confidence, extra money tends to get spent rather than grown, reinforcing the belief that financial independence is out of reach. Over time, this mindset becomes deeply self-defeating.

Advice for property consumers

Asked what resort property consumers have to overcome property-related financial stress, Kayle said when homeowners do not have savings or access to surplus in their bond, their next resource withdrawal is not financial- it is emotional.

He says they need the energy to apply a calm, measured plan to cut costs and keep repayments, relationships, and work performance steady.

Worth, an independent financial education group, says this is where the old idea of financial literacy falls short. It says understanding a loan agreement is not the same as anticipating how rate hikes, load-shedding costs or inflation will hit your cash flow.

“That’s not literacy-that’s financial intelligence. It’s a higher bar that includes foresight, adaptability, and the ability to take decisive action when the curveballs come, and that’s why it’s critical that we measure personal financial resilience alongside FSS.”

Kayle says this is evident in their research, where we saw that people who completed the Wealthy Me or Wealthy Couples courses have also increased their long-term savings for education, cars and homes by 29%.

“This represents a significant improvement in an individual's personal resilience and commensurately, a decrease in property (and other) related financial stress.” 

According to the First 100 Paychecks Report by the UCT Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing, commissioned by Liberty and Standard Bank, the average age at which young professionals bought their first home has shifted from 33 to 37.

Although Standard Bank’s Youth Barometer shows that about 40% of new home loan enquiries in the past two years came from under-35s, most still delayed buying their first home until a few years into their careers.

The reasons were said to be complex, reflecting many adulthood launch tensions. This is a generation trying to balance independence, family responsibility, and aspiration in a stagnant economy, with high costs of living and an unstable job market.

A new report released by The TEFL Academy reveals how the cost of living for young South Africans has escalated sharply over the past two decades, contrasting the realities faced by millennial graduates entering the job market in 2005 with those of Gen Z graduates in 2025.

In 2005, renting was deemed more manageable for young professionals as the average monthly rent of around R1 500, according to archived data from the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) and early PayProp rental trend estimates, accounted for roughly 20% of a graduate’s income.

This allowed room for savings, travel, and other discretionary spending, and many graduates were able to live independently in centrally located apartments or shared houses near work or university hubs.

However, last year, the average rent across South Africa had climbed to R8 598 per month, according to PayProp’s Rental Index Annual Market Report 2024 Edition.

For early-career graduates earning between R6 000 and R9 000 per month, as reported by Indeed and Glassdoor, 2025, rent now took between 48% and 64% of their income.

The more affordable options at around R4 000 per month, according to Private Property (2025), still account for nearly half of a lower-earning graduate’s take-home pay.

 Independent Media Property