Dear homeowner,
You may have heard about the new budget for the City of Cape Town, possibly through messaging by the city council about how good it is doing. What they are not telling you is that you will probably be facing a 20-30% increase starting July 1st 2025. The NRPA supports many of the initiatives of the city, including the large infrastructure projects in the Cape Flats, but the increase brought upon homeowners of properties valued at R2m or higher is disproportionate and far outstrips the annual inflation rate of 3.2%. The upcoming valuation roll with exacerbate the situation.
Read what you can do at the bottom of this post.
The main reasons for these increases are:
– The overall expenditure increase of 11.4%, which if far above the inflation rate
– Fixed charges for water and sanitation have been linked to property value, which puts unfair loads on properties with higher valuations
– Introduction of a city wide cleaning tariff which is also linked to property value, while these are services that should be paid out of the property rates, like any other council service
– Using property rates to decrease the electricity consumption tariff. This is especially damaging for homeowners with solar panels who do not benefit from these decreases.
We believe that CoCT should revise its draft budget in a number of ways:
- Cut the overall budget to align with inflation by reducing costs, improving efficiency, and spreading major projects over multiple years.
- Decouple fixed water and sanitation charges from property values—make them true “fixed” charges like water currently is linked to connection size
- Remove the city-wide cleaning levy—fund this through property rates like other municipal services.
- Increase electricity usage fees in line with inflation and lower property rates to balance the budget.
- Raise the property value threshold for the R435,000 exemption from R5 million to R6 million to accommodate the increase in valuations.
NRPA is working together with other ratepayer organisations across Cape Town to submit comments, but we need you to help us.
What can you do?
- Check your new rates using the CoCT rates calculator: https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/rtcalc/
- Sign the petition to make your voice heard: https://www.petitions.net/object_to_the_draft_2025-26_budget_for_cape_town
- Alternatively, submit your own comment on this online platform: https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/websitefeedback/?id=557d50da-f116-4ea7-9d02-dc91ebd7a863
The deadline for comments is May 2nd 2025.
Bas Zuidberg
NRPA Chair