The National Debt Counsellors Association (NDCA) has warned that many of their consumers, particularly homeowners were seeing their combined spending on electricity, rates, and other municipal service charges in many cases being more than what they spent on their bond repayments.
NDCA chairperson Benay Sager yesterday said South Africa should strive to reverse the situation over the next few years in such a way to help all consumers, particularly homeowners to be able to build wealth and build some equity in their homes.
If the situation carries on and operational expenses such as rates, electricity, water, and all other municipal service charges continue to exceed the amount that were paying for a bond, it just makes it more and more difficult, not only for current homeowners but also to attract future homeowners, Sager said.
I think the real meaningful change will happen for consumers when those charges are lower than bond repayments
Chaz Jaftha, head of credit and analytic at short-term lender Wonga, told Business Report that there needed to be a more comprehensive approach to alleviating the cost-of-living pressures for consumers to effectively cope with the current financial strain outside of careful planning and budgeting.
