The project explored rental market demand for a proposed inner city affordable rental housing development in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as the potential impact (social and economic) of investing in inner-city affordable rental housing units.

The team profiled the target market for the proposed development using nationally representative survey data from the Living Conditions Survey, as well as tenant data from existing rental housing providers located in the same area. In addition, we conducted telephone interviews with current, past and prospective tenants of inner-city units to understand their housing journeys, preferences, affordability and other demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and analysed available survey data to quantify and profile the broader rental market. A small ‘mystery shopping’ exercise was also conducted with a researcher posing as a prospective tenant to capture data on the current condition, offering and tenant onboarding process of other inner city affordable rental developments.

The research findings contributed to our client’s due diligence and investment impact assessment by offering insight on who the target market is, how their needs are currently being met or not, as well as the potential impact of inner city rental from an economic and social perspective, sense of safety, access to key amenities and facilities, and satisfaction with their living arrangements.

No publicly available outputs