Airbnb or a long lease: which nets more?

R1,800 a night looks unbeatable next to R12,500 a month. Then the cleaner takes R350 a stay, the platform takes its cut, the managing agent takes another, June and July are dead, and SARS taxes what's left at your marginal rate. Most of that gap closes quietly, and this works out what survives.

The model runs a year of short letting at your nightly rate and occupancy, strips out the costs that scale with bookings and the fixed monthly ones, taxes the profit, and lines the result up against the same property on a long lease with its own vacancy and management assumptions. Both sides land on one comparable number: net in your pocket for the year.

Occupancy decides everything. The same flat at 60% full can comfortably beat a lease, and at 35% often loses to it. So the break-even occupancy card is the figure to watch, with your assumed occupancy sitting next to it, and the gap between them is your margin for a bad season.

Gather:

  • the average nightly rate, annual occupancy, typical stay length and cleaning cost per stay
  • the platform and management percentages
  • levies, rates, utilities and other monthly running costs
  • the long-let rent, expected vacancy and any management fee
  • your taxable income, and the property value so both paths can be read as a yield

One local rule is built in. Cape Town's 2026/27 Rates Policy, adopted on 29 June 2026, rates a property as commercial accommodation when it is listed for short letting more than half its annual room nights, at more than double the residential rate, with billing from 1 July 2027. The rates tariff toggle lets you stress-test that outcome or leave it residential for occasional letting of your own home.

The city presets are vendor estimates, not booking promises, so edit them. And the model can't price your own time. Self-managing a short let is a real job, and it doesn't appear anywhere in the arithmetic.

Money Cat is an information tool, not financial advice. Confirm any figure that matters with your bank, lender or a registered professional.