simonz

I'm planning to visit South Africa shortly. I'd like to rent an apartment (not a vacation rental) for 3-6 months - preferably

in the Western Cape area, with Durban (or somewhere close by) as a second choice. But the thing is, I've never been to SA

before & I've never rented before. So I'm eager to hear of anyone elses experiences. What I'd like to know mainly is...


*Is it generally easy to find short-term furnished rentals in the western cape area? (or anywhere else in SA, for that

matter). What I'm planning to do is book a hotel room for a week, fly over, & start looking. Could I reasonably expect to

find a place in a week or two? I'll certainly be e-mailing a few estate agents with this question, but I'd still value any

renters views on this.


*Are there any pitfalls to avoid? Dealing with estate agents, smallprint in rental agreements etc?

*Banking: is it straightforward for a foreigner to open a bank account in SA? AS I'll be staying for quite a while, it seems

to make sense to have a bank account to pay my rent/bills etc.


Any general advice/stories/lessons learned would all be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Simon.

Bobf

Hi Simonz

From my experience, having only rented a house once in SA, you have to be very carefull of the contract. It tends to be biased towards the owner of the property. In order to protect their rights.

It is not unusual to pay 1 - 2 months rental in advance and in some cases a security deposit.

You do realise that the Western Cape area and Durban are many many miles apart and world be a good days drive from one to the other.

You can open a SA bank account as a non-resident and I believe you will have to TT funds from your UK account. You may not be granted a credit card though. In which case you could use you UK one.

It might be better looking for a family B&B for the time you are there ( it may be cheaper )

Try these for more information:

http://www.standardbank.co.za/

Barclays Bank also has an International Banking Service which is recognised in SA

And these for hotels/property/rentals rtc:

http://www.mweb.co.za/home/default.asp

http://www.southafrica.com/

Regards
Bobf

simonz

Thanks Bob,

Regarding the distance between the Cape area & Durban, it's not an issue. I can live in either area, it's not as if I'd have to commute from one to the other. One question regarding renting:

Are there any other costs (apart from gas, electricity, & phone) that I might have to pay in addition to the rent & deposit? There's not much info on the property listing sites I've looked at (in contrast to the North American sites I've browsed which usually state what's included in the rent: trash, sewer, water etc).

Thanks again,

Simon.

Bobf

Simon

No, renting propert in SA is the same as the UK. If the house you rent has a pool you would be expected to keep up the maintanence; clean it, chlorine, acid etc but this will not be too expensive its just the time involved if you have to do it by hand.

Regards
Bob f