We really enjoyed our time in South Africa, and I was excited to crunch the numbers to see what it would take to live there long term as a FIRE’d expat. In this post I will break down the cost for an expat family budget based on our actual spending. I will be covering scenarios for renting and buying accommodations, as well as calling out cost differences if you are single rather than a family of four.

South Africa is an interesting place for expats/nomads, and has a lot to offer for that lifestyle. Particularly the cleanliness of the land/sea/air, the natural beauty, and the overall sense of affordability make it very appealing. South Africa has its issues without a doubt, but if you find it meets your specific needs it can be a very compelling option. They have a permanent residency path called the “Financially Independent Permit” which is very applicable here. It requires you demonstrate that you have a net worth of 12M rand (~$736K), and you have to pay a 120K rand (~$7,362) fee, and then if you meet all of the other criteria you are on your way to gaining residency.

Assumptions

I will be making the following assumptions to simplify the scenarios presented:

• You are selling everything and moving your family of four to the Garden Route of South Africa
• You are renting/buying a 2 bed 2 bath condo
• You are using international health insurance, something similar to Cigna Global. There are however some other private insurance options available in South Africa that may provide savings over Cigna Global.
• You will be buying a cheap used car since ride hailing is not practical.

Vehicle Purchase

The car we will be buying for South Africa is a used Suzuki S-Presso. We’ll go with the 2023 in the middle of the image below. It’s not terribly attractive, but the price is an affordable $9,810. That’s a great value for this FIRE budget because it eliminates the need for full coverage insurance. The gas mileage on this is absurd at upwards of 59 mpg.

Apartment

For these scenarios, we are renting and buying the same model we lived in during our time in Knysna. It’s in a nice apartment complex called Oyster Walk.

The unit is a little on the small side for a family of four as a permanent living situation. For our family, we would most likely find a place that is a little less nicely appointed or a little less nicely located in exchange for more living space. The price would remain the same though.

The purchase price is $85,366 based on an active listing for the third floor unit directly above the unit we stayed in. I’ll call that $90K to account for closing costs. The monthly long term rental price is $795.11 for the same model. As expected, that’s a large savings over our monthly Airbnb price of $1626.

Expenses – Rent Scenario

Big Picture Numbers

Detailed Expenses

Expenses – Buy Scenario

Big Picture Numbers

Detailed Expenses

Final Comparison and Analysis

At the start of the year my expectation based on numbeo projections and perusing Airbnb options was that South Africa would be the single cheapest location to live this year. It’s definitely not the cheapest and the cost of living is much higher than anticipated. However, the investment totals required to FIRE here are still very attainable compared to much of the US.

Cost Surprises – The Airbnb rental price we paid was nearly twice as high as we originally thought it would be. This may have been because we waited too long to book a place, and available units dried up. Groceries also caught us off guard. We ended up paying nearly the same for groceries in Knysna that we do in Colorado. Those two budget categories are typically the biggest line items, and if they inflate, the whole budget inflates.

Renting vs Buying – Buying is slightly better up front and over time in all scenarios, but it really doesn’t matter given these numbers. If you wanted to pay slightly more for the freedom of renting, it’s not a bad choice.