Cape Town is officially one of the best cities in the world right now, according to the Telegraph, Time Out magazine and a steady stream of Instagram posts from people who have just discovered Camps Bay. Cape Town consistently ranks among the top cities in the world for quality of life. But that reputation is increasingly at odds with the experience of the people who actually live and work here year-round.
It is beautiful, it is vibrant, and if you happen to be earning dollars or euros or pounds, it is still relatively affordable. But if you are a local earning in rands, the Cape Town cost of living is starting to feel like you are being slowly squeezed out of your own city.
Rent in Cape Town has been climbing sharply for years, and the conversation around why is increasingly pointing at two things: the explosion of Airbnb listings and the influx of digital nomads who are working remotely from Cape Town, often on foreign salaries that make local rates feel like loose change.
Cape Town's Rental Crisis by the Numbers
As of late 2024 there were over 25,800 active Airbnb listings in Cape Town. To put that in context, that is more short-term rental listings than Barcelona or Berlin, cities that receive up to five times more tourists per year. The Atlantic Seaboard alone has seen Airbnb listings increase by 190% since 2022.
Research from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that digital nomads in Cape Town are paying between R25,000 and R30,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. The median monthly salary for many Capetonians? Around R5,500.
Hundreds of people have been filmed queuing to view a single rental property. Locals are being outbid for their own city by foreigners who can pay six months upfront. Properties that used to be long-term rentals are being converted to Airbnbs overnight because the returns are simply better.
Fewer than 700 long-term rentals in the Cape Town CBD. Over 23,000 Airbnb listings. That is the city we are living in right now.
How Housing Stress Can Trigger or Worsen Hoarding Disorder
This is where we want to be upfront with you. There is no peer-reviewed study sitting on our desk that draws a direct causal line between Cape Town's rental crisis and hoarding disorder. But there is a pretty compelling conversation to be had, and we think it is worth having.
What we do know is that hoarding disorder is heavily linked to stress, anxiety, instability and trauma. And what the Cape Town housing market is delivering in abundance right now is exactly those things, in ways that are affecting ordinary people deeply.
Think about it from this angle. You have been living in the same flat in Observatory or Salt River or Woodstock for years. Your landlord sells and the new owner wants to list it on Airbnb. You have 60 days to find something else. The something else costs R4,000 more a month than you currently pay. You move into something smaller, maybe temporarily with family. Your life, your possessions and your sense of stability are suddenly all compressed into a much smaller, more precarious space.
That kind of upheaval does not automatically cause hoarding disorder. But for someone who already has a complicated relationship with possessions and security, that kind of stress and displacement can absolutely trigger or worsen it. Hoarding often intensifies in response to loss, instability and the feeling that the world around you is out of your control. A housing market that feels fundamentally hostile to the people who have lived here their whole lives is, by definition, destabilising.
When Smaller Living Spaces Make Hoarding Harder to Manage
There is also something more straightforward happening that is worth naming. When people are forced into smaller living spaces because they simply cannot afford more, managing their possessions becomes harder. There is less room for everything to have a place. The natural accumulation that happens in any household, the papers, the boxes, the things you are going to deal with when you get a moment, has nowhere to go.
In a bigger home or a more stable housing situation, clutter stays manageable. In a tiny flat where you are already stressed about the rent, it can spiral faster than you expect. This is not clinical hoarding in every case, but it sits on the same spectrum, and the conditions that produce it are being actively created by Cape Town's housing market right now.
We Are Not Pointing Fingers
The Cape Town housing situation is genuinely complicated. Digital nomads are not villains, they are people making reasonable life decisions. Airbnb hosts are people trying to maximise the return on their properties. The city itself is navigating tourism revenue, housing policy, regulation and a global reputation that keeps getting shinier by the year.
But the people who get lost in the middle of all of that complexity are real, and their lives are being affected in real ways. The stress of housing insecurity is a real mental health issue, and the downstream effects of that stress are showing up in people's homes.
The stress of not knowing if you can afford to stay in your city is a mental health issue. We just do not always call it that.
Need Help With Your Space in Cape Town? Here Is Where to Start
If you are struggling with your space and feeling overwhelmed, please know you are not alone and there is no shame in asking for help. Sometimes a situation that feels completely out of control just needs one person to come in without judgement and help you find a starting point.
That is quite literally what we do at EcoHaz Solutions. We are not here to comment on how things got to where they are or to rush you toward a version of your home that does not feel like yours. We are here to help you reclaim your space, at your pace, with as much compassion and discretion as we can bring.
Cape Town is under pressure right now. Its people deserve a bit more gentleness, not less. If your space has gotten away from you and you need help finding a starting point, EcoHaz Solutions offers compassionate, discreet hoarding and extreme cleaning services across Cape Town and the Western Cape. No judgement. Just help.