Is Mossel Bay Really One of the “Cheapest” Municipalities?

Mossel Bay residents are once again being told that the municipality is among the “cheapest” in the Western Cape based primarily on property rate comparisons published by the Executive Mayor.

But this narrative is incomplete — because it does not reflect what households actually pay every month.

The Problem With “Cheap Rates” Comparisons

The current comparisons focus mainly on property rates in isolation.

That is only one part of the municipal bill.

What residents actually experience is the total monthly cost of living in Mossel Bay, including:

• property rates

• fixed electricity charges

• fixed water charges

• fixed sewer charges

• refuse charges

• and usage charges.

This is where the affordability picture changes dramatically.

A household in Mossel Bay can easily face:

• property rates ranging from ±R400 to R1,800+ per month

• fixed electricity charges of approximately R434 per month

• fixed water charges of approximately R261 per month

• fixed sewer charges • profits on refuse charges

• plus profits on consumption charges.

Before meaningful electricity or water usage even begins, many households are already paying well over R1,300 to R3,000+ per month.

A R5 million home can already attract property rates of around R1,800 per month on its own.

The One-Sided Valuation Problem

Another major issue ignored in these “cheap municipality” comparisons is the underlying property valuation itself.

Mossel Bay is not a normal inland municipality with purely local pricing dynamics.

A significant portion of property values in Mossel Bay is driven by:

• holiday demand

• semigration

• retirement migration

• tourism appeal

• sea views

• lifestyle marketing

• and investment demand.

This creates property valuations that are often heavily inflated beyond what many local permanent residents can realistically afford based on local income levels.

In other words:

👉 many households are being rated on market values driven by external lifestyle and investment demand — not necessarily by local affordability or replacement building cost.

This means that even if the municipality applies a “lower cent-in-the-rand” rate:

👉 the valuation base itself may already be exceptionally high.

A “low rate” applied to a highly inflated property valuation can still produce a very expensive monthly municipal bill.

This is particularly important for:

• pensioners

• long-term residents

• retirement households

• and families who may appear asset-rich on paper while being cash-flow constrained in reality.

The municipality’s current narrative focuses only on the rate percentage — while ignoring the underlying valuation inflation unique to coastal semigration towns like Mossel Bay.

Mossel Bay’s Historical Financial Advantage – The Force Multiplier !

Mossel Bay also cannot fairly be compared to many other municipalities without recognising a major structural advantage that historically strengthened municipal finances.

The town contains a very large number of holiday homes and second properties.

These properties often:

• pay full monthly fixed charges

• pay property rates

• contribute significantly toward municipal revenue

• but do not place the same full-time daily demand on water, sewer and electricity infrastructure as permanently occupied homes.

This created a powerful municipal revenue multiplier.

In simple terms, many properties historically contributed revenue without creating equivalent permanent infrastructure pressure.

That financial structure helped Mossel Bay maintain strong municipal finances for many years.

The “Grow” Strategy Changed the Financial Equation

The affordability debate cannot be separated from the municipality’s aggressive expansion and development strategy over the past few years.

Since the introduction of the “Grow” agenda, virtually every major bulk infrastructure system has required expansion or upgrading, including:

• water infrastructure

• reservoirs and pump systems

• sewer infrastructure

• electrical substations and networks

• roads and bulk services.

These upgrades are extremely expensive.

The municipality’s own financial disclosures show that development levies collected from developers are insufficient to fully fund these large-scale bulk infrastructure requirements.

This means the funding shortfall ultimately flows into:

• higher tariffs

• increasing fixed charges

• higher property rates

• municipal borrowing

• and long-term financial pressure on compliant ratepayers.

The Rise of the Fixed-Charge Municipality

One of the most significant shifts in Mossel Bay over the past few years has been the increasing reliance on fixed monthly charges.

These charges behave very similarly to additional property rates because they are compulsory and unavoidable regardless of usage.

This affects:

• pensioners

• permanent residents

• lower-income households

• and middle-income families particularly hard.

The lower the value of the property, the greater the proportional impact of these fixed monthly costs.

The Real Affordability Question

The issue is therefore not whether Mossel Bay’s property rates alone may appear lower than some municipalities.

The real question is:

👉 What is the full monthly municipal cost once all compulsory charges are included?

And more importantly:

👉 Is Mossel Bay’s current growth model financially sustainable without continuously increasing pressure on the existing compliant ratepayer base?

Bottom Line

Mossel Bay is no longer simply a “low rates” municipality.

It has increasingly become a high fixed-cost municipality driven by growth-related infrastructure expansion and rising bulk service requirements.

Unless the full household bill is compared — not just property rates in isolation — the real affordability picture is not being honestly presented.

When total monthly costs are properly considered, Mossel Bay cannot reasonably be described as “one of the cheapest municipalities” for many households.