Everyone in South Africa has heard “property always goes up” — but what do the actual numbers say when you include maintenance, rates, transfer duties and the cost of leverage? We compared total returns (capital growth + net rental income) of average houses in Cape Town and Johannesburg against the FTSE/JSE All Share Index with dividends reinvested from 2004 to 2024. The results are not what most buy-to-let investors expect.

The tax-free savings account (TFSA) is often called South Africa’s best-kept secret. We ran the numbers using the real historical returns of the most popular low-cost JSE and global ETFs (Satrix 40, Ashburton 1200, Sygnia World) to show exactly what R36 000 invested every year becomes after tax, after fees, and after inflation — at 10, 20 and 30-year horizons. Spoiler: even conservative assumptions produce surprisingly large numbers.

A 1% difference in annual fees sounds small — until you see the maths. We modelled a R1 million lump sum invested for 30 years at realistic JSE and global returns and compared three common fee levels South Africans actually pay: 0.3% (cheap ETF), 1.2% (typical balanced unit trust), and 2.2% (full-service advisor + platform + active funds). The gap between the best and worst case is close to R4 million — before tax. See the exact breakdown.