Most landlords find out the rules changed when the beds are already empty.
A monthly brief on the policy, funding and compliance decisions that move student accommodation in South Africa, and what each one actually does to a property. Written by Retha van Rooyen.
The information exists. It is just unreadable.
Every decision that changes your occupancy gets published somewhere. A gazette. A SAQA notice. A committee minute nobody reads. By the time it reaches you it has been through three rounds of rewriting and arrives as a rumour in a WhatsApp group, usually wrong and usually late.
I read the source documents because I have to. I run student accommodation and the same decisions land on my properties. This brief is what I pull out of that reading once a month, written for someone who owns beds rather than someone who works in policy.
What changed
The decisions that were actually taken, with the document they came from, so you can check me.
What it costs you
The number that matters. Not the headline number, the one that hits a property.
What to do about it
Dates that belong in your diary, and my call on what I would do, marked clearly as my call.
Free gets you the story. Paid gets you the rest.
Free subscribers get section one of every issue, which is the month's main story in full, not a teaser paragraph. Forward it to whoever you like.
Paying subscribers get the whole brief: the numbers behind the story, the dates and deadlines for the months ahead, and my recommendation on what to do about it. R297 a month, cancel any time.
Free for MSH landlords. If My Student House manages your property, your access is already included and you do not pay.
Get the free briefThis is Issue 01.
Government is cutting 1,475 qualifications
Saturday 9 August 2026, 2,800 words, about 11 minutes
Why 1,475 qualifications just hit their expiry date
The number that limits the whole change: 21,000
Parliament looks at your pricing on 28 August
Why I would start your accreditation renewal in September
Written by me, not by a team.
I am Retha van Rooyen. I run My Student House, which manages student accommodation across Cape Town, Potchefstroom, Port Elizabeth, Gauteng and Bloemfontein. Every policy change in this brief lands on properties I am responsible for, which is why I read the documents myself and why I will tell you when I do not know something.
The LinkedIn edition of this brief is read by 478 people. This one goes deeper and comes with the numbers.
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The next issue goes out at the start of the month.
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