Johannesburg is better than London for young professionals

  • Thread starter Thread starter Declan Thompson
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Nerfherder said:
Read some of the other comments... also inline with mine...
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"TWAK"?

Nerfherder said:
All my London friends complaining about cost of living and politics.
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That's true in most places. There's a reason why the cost of living is expensive: it's because nearly everyone wants to live there, especially professionals with money. For professionals, that's a huge advantage - career opportunities, social opportunities, travel, life experiences, and a safe place to raise a family.

Nerfherder said:
I can't remember the last time I heard about someone actually moving to London, or the UK for that matter.
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Like most places overseas, they're tightening entrance requirements.

www.worldsbestcities.com

The World's Best Cities

www.worldsbestcities.com www.worldsbestcities.com

London is number 1, Cape Town is at least 70, Johannesburg - not on top 100 list.

Nerfherder said:
Remember I live in CT amongst the swallows, the season for those staying in SA is becoming longer and longer every year.
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I don't judge your sex life, but CT is a world away from Johannesburg, and even that's a stretch. I visit both CT and London yearly.

Nerfherder said:
If you don't understand why some people at least might want to live this side - then its you who is on the crack.
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You're moving the goalposts: You've gone from "Johannesburg is better for young professionals" to "this side" (including Cape Town), and now "some people".
 
PaulKempTheSecond said:
Anyone have access to the original column?
They’ve only referenced the rent and Netflix(or McD I think) so very little to go on. There is also no details of the opportunities in either city.

The rent number is off and doesn’t give details of which zone they used as a benchmark. Hard to take these articles seriously if they don’t give us much to debate.
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Vid is here:
 
Just so I'm clear, is this the same Johannesburg where the municipality owes billions to Eskom, resulting in risk of power being cut, electricity and water infrastructure have been so neglected that the systems are close to collapse, lawlessness is rife, minibus taxis, 8 foot walls, electric fences, corrupt and incompetent police, potholes, broken traffic lights, stolen traffic lights, dysfunctional street lights, speed cameras not worked since December? Skyrocketing municipal tariffs, cable theft, water tanker mafia, dysfunctional post office, threat of EWC, threats of prescribed assets for pension funds...


If so, how does a lower cost of living make up for all the above, in terms of stress and actual quality of life?
 
Sinbad said:
Just so I'm clear, is this the same Johannesburg where the municipality owes billions to Eskom, resulting in risk of power being cut, electricity and water infrastructure have been so neglected that the systems are close to collapse, lawlessness is rife, minibus taxis, 8 foot walls, electric fences, corrupt and incompetent police, potholes, broken traffic lights, stolen traffic lights, dysfunctional street lights, speed cameras not worked since December? Skyrocketing municipal tariffs, cable theft, water tanker mafia, dysfunctional post office, threat of EWC, threats of prescribed assets for pension funds...


If so, how does a lower cost of living make up for all the above, in terms of stress and actual quality of life?
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The answers are all in my next article: “Why Nyanga is better than Sea Point for young professionals “.
 
Expats popping a vein lol. It's like family that wants to come here for holiday after telling me for 15 years they want to leave and then leaving. Why waste money to come back for a holiday? Doesn't make any sense.
 
Sinbad said:
Just so I'm clear, is this the same Johannesburg where the municipality owes billions to Eskom, resulting in risk of power being cut, electricity and water infrastructure have been so neglected that the systems are close to collapse, lawlessness is rife, minibus taxis, 8 foot walls, electric fences, corrupt and incompetent police, potholes, broken traffic lights, stolen traffic lights, dysfunctional street lights, speed cameras not worked since December? Skyrocketing municipal tariffs, cable theft, water tanker mafia, dysfunctional post office, threat of EWC, threats of prescribed assets for pension funds...


If so, how does a lower cost of living make up for all the above, in terms of stress and actual quality of life?
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When last did the dysfunctional post office make your life worse?
Ditto for not having speed cameras?
 
Smiggles said:
Expats popping a vein lol. It's like family that wants to come here for holiday after telling me for 15 years they want to leave and then leaving.
Why waste money to come back for a holiday? Doesn't make any sense.
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Because they now have money to travel and no longer have to think of an international holiday as wasting money, especially if it’s to visit family .

Also, places like Cape Town are genuinely nice holiday destinations, especially during northern hemisphere winter.
 
konfab said:
When last did the dysfunctional post office make your life worse?
Ditto for not having speed cameras?
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5.5 years ago...

You have no idea, apparently, how amazing it is to be able to have your watch serviced by means of placing an order online, the next day a packaging box arrives through your front door, you pop your watch in the box and take it to the post office to post back to the repairer, 2 days later you get an invoice, you pay it and the next day the watch arrives through the front door mailslot...

Or, for your credit cards and passports (and driving license) to be posted to you with no buggering around with couriers or pickups. Or sending a letter by giving it to the postman when he does his rounds....

The convenience factor of a functional post office objectively makes my life better.

Speed cameras? Well, that speaks to lawlessness (and also revenue issues for the municipality, though I don't really agree with fines as a means of revenue generation).
 
Smiggles said:
Expats popping a vein lol. It's like family that wants to come here for holiday after telling me for 15 years they want to leave and then leaving. Why waste money to come back for a holiday? Doesn't make any sense.
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Definitely not popping a vein. Last measured blood pressure 105/70 - and if anything were to pop it'd be an artery :D

Low stress living ftw.
 
Sinbad said:
Definitely not popping a vein. Last measured blood pressure 105/70 - and if anything were to pop it'd be an artery :D

Low stress living ftw.
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And ironically one of the most stressful events we've gone through while living in the UK...was going to SA Home Affairs in London for a child birth registration and passport application. You get a quick reminder of how far behind SA is with stuff like this.
 
prod said:
And ironically one of the most stressful events we've gone through while living in the UK...was going to SA Home Affairs in London for a child birth registration and passport application. You get a quick reminder of how far behind SA is with stuff like this.
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Ja, SA passport renewal... Two applications at the same time, one took 4 months and the other took 6.

Fun.
 
The comparison feels counterintuitive at first. Britain enjoys better institutions, higher average wealth, and more reliable administration. Its decline is cushioned and, to many, culturally justified. Voters and elites alike have absorbed the idea that safety, offence-avoidance, and redistribution must come first. Any move toward greater freedom and individual responsibility risks looking reckless.

South Africa’s failures, by contrast, stand out more sharply as policy choices. Crime can be tackled with competent policing and a functioning justice system. Property rights can be properly secured. Race-based regulations can be replaced by equal treatment before the law. Energy and infrastructure can improve by letting private capability flourish. These changes are difficult, but they do not require overturning a deeply held national consensus about the proper role of the state. They are more straightforwardly reversible.

This is no excuse for complacency about our crises. They are profound and urgent. Skills emigration, municipal decay, and repeated policy errors continue to do real damage. Britain, for its part, retains formidable advantages in human capital, science, and basic institutional integrity. But its road to renewed vitality looks steeper precisely because so much of its political culture has settled into the safety settlement.
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https://dailyfriend.co.za/2026/07/1...+m+more+bullish+on+South+African+than+Britain

John Endres from the IRR takes it a step further.

Britbongistan is financially f__ked due to pensions and the NHS. SA doesn't have that crippling obligation yet. Fixing the UK means pension and NHS reform. Which is impossible in a democratic state. Any party wanting to do it will face another party that will simply lie about the problem and promise that they won't cut the gibsmedats. And it has a culture of overregulation.

Whereas SA's problems are relatively easy to fix because they are all sensible changes that don't have huge political pressure against them. Like if the ANC/DA came up tomorrow and said there are going to be new mega prisons built in every province, and there will be life sentences for all repeat offenders and violent offenders, other than a few annoyed leftoid NGOS, every single demographic will be happy with it. A political party running against it is going to say what? They want more violent criminals and repeat offenders on the streets?
 
Sinbad said:
Just so I'm clear, is this the same Johannesburg where the municipality owes billions to Eskom, resulting in risk of power being cut, electricity and water infrastructure have been so neglected that the systems are close to collapse, lawlessness is rife, minibus taxis, 8 foot walls, electric fences, corrupt and incompetent police, potholes, broken traffic lights, stolen traffic lights, dysfunctional street lights, speed cameras not worked since December? Skyrocketing municipal tariffs, cable theft, water tanker mafia, dysfunctional post office, threat of EWC, threats of prescribed assets for pension funds...


If so, how does a lower cost of living make up for all the above, in terms of stress and actual quality of life?
Click to expand...
yes, but they have to show something positive, its not like we literally live in Satans armpit next door to Jeffery Epstein and Hitler.
and Id argue there are much worse places Haiti, Somalia Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza,

we could argue out of a whole bunch of bad places were okayish, invest money here, Pls.
 
konfab said:
https://dailyfriend.co.za/2026/07/1...+m+more+bullish+on+South+African+than+Britain

John Endres from the IRR takes it a step further.

Britbongistan is financially f__ked due to pensions and the NHS. SA doesn't have that crippling obligation yet. Fixing the UK means pension and NHS reform. Which is impossible in a democratic state. Any party wanting to do it will face another party that will simply lie about the problem and promise that they won't cut the gibsmedats. And it has a culture of overregulation.

Whereas SA's problems are relatively easy to fix because they are all sensible changes that don't have huge political pressure against them. Like if the ANC/DA came up tomorrow and said there are going to be new mega prisons built in every province, and there will be life sentences for all repeat offenders and violent offenders, other than a few annoyed leftoid NGOS, every single demographic will be happy with it. A political party running against it is going to say what? They want more violent criminals and repeat offenders on the streets?
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You're very naive saying that SA's problems are easy to fix.
Education is broken. There are several lost generations. Education is key to building a growing economy.
You have how many grant recipients and how many taxpayers?

NHS reform? Already happening.

Crippling obligations? Yeah, these "obligations" are what actually enable people in the UK to enjoy a quality of life that 80% of South Africans can never ever hope to achieve. And they're not crippling.
 
Jet-Fighter7700 said:
yes, but they have to show something positive, its not like we literally live in Satans armpit next door to Jeffery Epstein and Hitler.
and Id argue there are much worse places Haiti, Somalia Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza,

we could argue out of a whole bunch of bad places were okayish, invest money here, Pls.
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100% - however, if you want to show something positive, then don't cherrypick one or two stats that in isolation look better - rather play in a realistic league?
 
konfab said:
Vid is here:
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These guys are smarter than I am so I’ll take their word for it but I wouldn’t call enclave living a positive.

The reality for anyone making a big move abroad is that it comes down to individual family needs. You list your needs, create budgets and figure out if it will work for you or not. Broad views don’t really come into account as everyone has unique needs and wants from the place they live.
 
neoprema said:
London is nice, i mean i wouldn't go live there but i also don't think Johannesburg is THAT bad in comparison.

If we had to introduce Paris, Milan, Athens, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi etc into the mix though then yeah, Johannesburg stands no chance lol.
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Erm, parts of Paris actually look like JHB CBD these days...
 
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