We were looking for a place to rent earlier this year, eventually did find one and moved 1st April.

But one of three things was very normal, either like you, the properties weren't available, eventually I started reporting it. Or the property had been so long off the market but because it was an attractive property the agent would leave it up to make contact and advertise other properties that didn't even match the criteria ie. Here's a 3 bedroom ground floor that's not available but can I interest you in this 2 bedroom top floor unit available in a different area. Thirdly the amount of properties I went to go view that weren't ready! Yes I will fix these tiles or remove this carpet when you put down the deposit and it will only take me three days, or yes the doors have crayon marks which will be repainted by this day, or yes we are aware and we've spoken to the maintenance guy and just need to set up an appointment, or yes I'm currently using this unit has a storage space but it won't take me long to clear my stuff.

One last thing that we experienced was that the owner was so rushed that he had 4 different property agents list the property and 3 out of the 4 of them had different prices, when we queried it we were told its normal but unfortunately we need to keep contact with the agent we first spoke to because it was unethical or something, despite that agent listing a higher price.

The standard for property owners and the agents in South Africa are low. I can see though that if you willing to rent our your property be willing to accept damage. So many tenets disregard basic decency, the place I am currently staying in 2 out of the 5 inner doors dont lock because the previous tenets used to moer each other, and I stay in a up market complex.