Hi all,

I've been shopping around for some new buy-to-let property investments.

I've cased about 40 different properties in JHB northern suburbs and set up a comparison spreadsheet and all of them have a shortfall i.e rental doesn't cover the bond + expenses.

The properties I've been targeting are 2 bedroom apartments in the 900k - 1.2m range, they typically rent for between 8k-12k. After paying bond, interest, rates, levies, maintenance and management fees I have to bankroll an extra R1000 (roughly). Oh and this is based on a 20% down payment.

Is it possible to find positive cashflowing properties from day one or is this shortfall the norm?

It's a bit frustrating because I don't want to buy liabilities and don't want to speculate on capital gains, I want positive cashflowing properties and can't find them.

Any real estate people out there experiencing the same thing?