Name: Cape Town rental boom pushes low-income residents into illegal housing
Uploaded: 2026-01-01T16:35:59.222Z
Duration: 1 min 50 s
Description: Driven in part by a tourism boom and the rapid expansion of short-term rentals such as Airbnb, property prices in the central business district have soared, pricing out workers who rely on living close to jobs and services.

Driven in part by a tourism boom and the rapid expansion of short-term rentals such as Airbnb, property prices in the central business district have soared, pricing out workers who rely on living close to jobs and services.

Cape Town

A sharp rise in rental prices in Cape Town's central areas is intensifying the city's housing crisis, with many low-income residents resorting to living in illegally occupied or abandoned buildings. The increase in rents is attributed in part to a tourism boom and the proliferation of short-term rentals such as Airbnb, which have driven up property prices in the central business district.

Residents say that living in the inner city is a necessity due to unreliable and costly public transport, and they express concerns about the lack of affordable housing options near their workplaces. Many warn that without urgent intervention to provide affordable housing, the city's growing inequality will only worsen.

Cape Town rental boom pushes low-income residents into illegal housing

A surge in rents across Cape Town's inner city is deepening the housing crisis, forcing many low-income residents into illegally occupied and abandoned buildings as affordable housing slips further out of reach. We want to be in the CBD, we want to be in the inner city, so we don't pay transport. We get warnings and fines at work if we are late because the trains are not running time and again. The buses, it's a lot. We want peace of mind just as they have peace of mind from wherever they are in the plush suburbs that they are in. We want peace of mind here, we don't have any other place to go, this is our home. We need our generation to be in a good space, even if I can get a child that is a graduate formally, you know, but at the end they don't get a positive mindset because they grew up in a location where there is no service delivery at all. So at least the CBD has got enough service delivery for our future children. So I am standing here as a parent that wants to fix things with my children. Driven in part by a tourism boom and the rapid expansion of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, property prices in the central business district CBD have soared. If the city will build houses near where we work, it will be better. It will cost us less than we are using because a lot of money goes to the transport. While some say living in the CBD is not a luxury but a necessity. As Cape Town's popularity grows, residents want that without urgent housing solutions, inequality in the city will only deepen.

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