Vanishing Domestic Staff Accommodation (The Bugle)

Whatever happened to the domestic staff quarters in residential properties?  As realtors we have noted the distinct absence of live-in staff accommodation across many price categories of the residential property market. The institute of Race Relations recently published estimates of the number of people employed as domestic workers in South Africa since 2001 using Stats SA survey data. It shows that there were 1,288 million workers employed as at 2006, following the economic boom years, which had increased the numbers from 1,188 million in 2001, but that by 2012 the number had dropped to 1,153 million. This is despite the number of homes increasing significantly over this decade. FNB recently published an insightful analysis of this issue and provided four reasons why we have seen this relative decline in the employment of domestic workers by households when allocating the typical household budget on overall expenditure relating to the business of owning and running a home.

Firstly, we have witnessed a fundamental change in property characteristics. Properties have become increasingly smaller. The percentage of homes built with domestic worker’s quarters has declined from a peak of 57,7% in the 1955-59 period to 14,3% in the period 2010 to date. The average size of full title stands has declined from 1,171 sqm in the 1975-79 period to 506 sqm in the period 2010 to date. In addition to the average erven sizes shrinking by more than half, there are a greater number of sectional title homes in the market. The average size of built home has also declined from 212 sqm in the 1975-79 period to 143 sqm for the period 2010 to date. Smaller homes mean less area requiring maintenance and upkeep. As designs have been rationalized over time, the staff rooms became the obvious casualty. 

Secondly, the “crowding out effect” is used to explain the shift in spending allocation by households on items regarded as more essential than domestic worker services. Four major and measured household expenditure categories, namely Health Products & Services, Education, Household Fuel and Power and Transport & Communication, have increased their share of nominal consumer spend from 10,6% in 1970 to 16,6% in 1990 and further to 25,2% by 2011. With households shifting their spend to these items, something else has to go. 

Thirdly, there is a substitution effect in spending more on relatively cheaper and steadily improving household appliances aimed at making household tasks, from cleaning to food preparation, easier. While the cost of domestic staff wages have continued to increase above the long-term consumer price inflation, the highly competitive East Asian labour forces have been producing household appliances for us to use domestically at ever decreasing prices. 

Fourthly, there is a fundamental shift in long-term changes in consumer tastes. Stats SA measures exponential growth in certain categories it measures such as “Clothing and Footwear”, and “Recreation, Entertainment and Culture”. Modern day households are spending proportionately more on enjoyment and looking good. Convenience has become a factor in our daily lives.  After a busy day, you may head off to a gym session and then pick up a Woolworths meal on your way home to your 140 sqm sectional title apartment, where you only need a cleaning service once or twice a week to give the unit a “once over”.

(Author: Andreas Wassenaar, published in The Bugle, 13 Feb 2013)