Brief
Edge‑Advanced apartment could shave R600 a month and cut a R1.85 m bond by four years
Modelling by Landsdowne Property Group shows that putting the monthly R600 saving back into a R1.85 m loan could reduce interest costs by roughly R587 000.
By Felo News Desk · Published
An Edge‑Advanced two‑bedroom apartment in Cape Town can save its owner about R600 a month on electricity and water, and reinvesting that saving into the mortgage could cut the loan term by almost four years, Landsdowne Property Group says.
What happened
The modelling assumes a R1.85 million purchase financed with a 10 % deposit over 20 years. At current Cape Town tariffs – R3.5595/kWh for the first 600 kWh and water rates based on a two‑person household using 198 litres per person per day – the combined utility saving is estimated at roughly R600 per month.
Applying that saving to the mortgage each month would reduce interest payments by about R587 000 and allow the bond to be settled nearly four years early.
What the reports add
The article notes that Edge certification, overseen by the International Finance Corporation, requires at least 20 % predicted savings in energy, water and embodied‑energy, while Edge Advanced raises the energy‑saving requirement to 40 %.
A 2025 peer‑reviewed South African study of 503 Edge‑certified apartments found a 36 % reduction in electricity use for two‑bedroom units, equating to a monthly saving of about 140 kWh. Using Cape Town’s 2026/27 tariff, that translates to close to R500 a month, with water savings bringing the total to around R600.
What was said
“The term ‘green’ has become very loose in residential property,” Jonathan Kohler, CEO of Landsdowne Property Group, told Bizcommunity. “A solar panel, inverter or water tank does not on its own tell a buyer what the home will run to cost. Certification gives buyers something more useful because the efficiency is measured against a defined benchmark.”
How it came about
Landsdowne’s analysis builds on the Edge certification framework and the 2025 study published in the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate. By applying the higher 40 % energy‑saving threshold of Edge Advanced to the study’s conventional benchmark, the firm derived the illustrative monthly savings used in its model.
Key facts
- An Edge‑Advanced two‑bedroom apartment can save about R600 per month on utilities. (bizcommunity.com)
- Reinvesting the R600 saving could shorten a R1.85 million mortgage by almost four years, saving roughly R587 000 in interest. (bizcommunity.com)
- Edge Advanced requires at least 40 % energy savings versus a local base‑case building. (bizcommunity.com)
- A 2025 study of 503 Edge‑certified apartments found a 36 % reduction in electricity use for two‑bedroom units. (bizcommunity.com)
Sources
- [1] bizcommunity.com — originally reported as “Green apartment savings can cut R500,000 from your home loan”
