Living costs in Cape Town and Johannesburg

Hi sumeetagarkar, is this an additional allowance on top of your basic salary, or is this you general pay? Also, is this amount inclusive of weekends? So will you be getting this amount for seven days of the week? Perhaps if you give me a few more details about this I can assist with some insights about the cost of living in South Africa. In the meantime, I suggest you have a look at our page on Cost of Living in South Africa,. which will give you a nice break down of what you can expect to pay for your basic goods and services in the country - which you can then compare to what you will be getting paid.

Hi Catherine, Thank you fo the reply. this is daily allowance and my Indian salary will continue on Indian Rupees. I will not have to spend on stay and daily conveyance..I wanted to know the living cost for a couple excluding stay and conveyance.. sumeet

Hi Sumeet

This allowance is not really substantial and if you're relying on it for your daily expenses you may find you'll have to dig into your salary on top of this. It definitely won't be enough to eat out three times a week, cover your medical expenses and telephone etc and also have some outings every few weeks. For a basic two-course meal at a restaurant for two people, including wine, you could be looking at anything from about R300 to R800 - depending on where you eat and what you have. A very basic bag of groceries would be anything from about R150-R200, with a trolley loads of basics costing around R700- R1000.

Medical care is expensive in South Africa and it's definitely advised you rather use private medical facilities over public. A basic consultation at a GP for the flu will be about R250, and this excludes medication which you'll also have to pay out your own pocket for. You should consider getting comprehensive medical insurance - perhaps chat to your company about helping you organise this for you.

I'd definitely suggest having a look at our Cost of Living in South Africa page that I mentioned above to work out more of your basic expenses and whether you feel this allowance will suit your particular lifestyle and living expenses.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your relocation!

Thanks Catherine this really helped.

Hi Catherine, Can you pls help with the cost of living link. The URL mentioned above is not directing correctly. Thank you. Sumeet

Hi Sumeet, sorry about that, it's now fixed, so you should be able to click on it now and it will take you to our cost of living page. :)

Hi Madam, I am Prabhu Kiran from India, planning to do MBA in UCT. I have seen the Cost of living page that helped me. I want to know the rental charge for just a single room per month. and I want to know whether the people give me a room as i am a student. I am asking for your advice that which is better University Hostel or a single room? How much can i make working there for 20 hours a week i mean is that sufficient for the maintenance and can i eat thrice a day with that money? Buying a car is necessary or just travel in the public transport which is best? please tell me the details so that i can setup financially from here itself . Thank you. Prabhu kiran.

Hi Prabhu, I know UCT also has a very active international students office, which will probably ber very helpful in answering any questions you may have - they may also be able to offer you suggestions about accommodation available. 

Hi Prabu,

You can look at spending around R2000-3000 for a room in a house share somewhere close to UCT. I suggest trying university notice boards or gumtree to check out whats available.

With regards to part time work, it depends what you want to do. If you work at a bar like lots of students you can earn between R2000 and R4000 month, depending on where you work and how much you earn in tips. There maybe other part time jobs that pay better than that, but it depends on your skills set.

As you will be living close to campus, you probably won't need a car as say someone who was working and needed to commute. If you do need to travel at the weekends, you could always hire a car. UCT also have the jammie shuttle to transport students around campus and to Cape Town CBD. A car will however give you lots of freedom if you want to explore the country.

Hope this helps.

Hi everyone... We r moving to J burg in 2 months....just wanted help regarding accommodation domestic help etc....my husband office is somewhere in Florida hope it's da correct name....where is da best place to find a rented app or house.. Cheers Pavitra

Hi, I am considering a job in Johannesburg and I am a bit concerned about the salary. They are paying 10.700 ZAR a month. The office is in Sandton and since I keep reading that the public transport is not very good I would need to find living accommodations in the area. Could you give an indication what the costs of a small apartment or studio or room would cost me? Do you think this salary is enough to live comfortably on, taking into account accommodation, insurance, ect? I would appreciate your feedback. Thank you

Hi anonymous, Sandton is quite an affluent area of Joburg and the surrounding suburbs are also quite affluent and generally accommodation in this area will be expensive. 

I suggest looking at sites such as property24.com or privateproperty.co.za where you can compare prices of rental listings for Sandton. Gumtree is also a good site to find property to rent.

Rental is likely to be a huge chunk of your salary, and this salary is not that lucrative for Johannesburg, but whether you can live compfortably on it all depends on your particular lifestyle and needs. I'd suggest you take a look at our Cost of Living in Johannesburg page for a breakdown of what you can expect to pay for your basic goods and services in the city.