Buying a new house is an exciting time – a time at which you get to furnish your home in your very own style and taste. There are so many furnishers and home furniture stores in South Africa, catering to a wide range of tastes and budgets.
There are a large number of furniture stores in South Africa which mainly operate on a credit basis. These stores traditionally cater to the lower LSM (Living Standards Measure) consumers, due to their lack of expendable cash at any given time. These stores offer mechanise on credit, which usually attracts a fairly high interest rate.
Customers can often choose their repayment term (remember that the sooner you can pay back the amount for the item plus the interest, the less interest you will ultimately pay).
Joshua Doore outlines its payment options as such:
- Pay over 24 months at 22.10% interest with a 10% deposit
- Pay over 36 months at 15% interest with a 10% deposit
- Pay over 48 months at 10% interest with a 10% deposit
- Pay over 60 months at 10% interest with a 10% deposit
Here is it evident that the longer the repayment term, the lower the interest rate. It is worth investigating thoroughly each store’s repayment options, to ascertain which option is best for your financial situation and future financial predictions.
Ellerines is a large established furniture store catering traditionally to the lower market. This store, like many others, provides finance through a registered bank. Furniture City is another store operating largely on credit sales however this store caters more to the middle market. Both provide finance through African Bank.
To apply for this type of finance, stores would usually require proof of income, and many would also conduct a credit check to ensure that you have not been blacklisted by a creditor in the past.
Should you meet the required conditions to get finance, getting brand new furniture suddenly becomes very easy. Sometimes, it can be a little too easy. Paying R300 per month for that brand new leather sofa doesn’t feel like much at all, but add a dining room table, a new flat screen, a TV stand and a new dishwasher into the mix, and your monthly debt amount can suddenly rise into the thousands.
There is also a vast array of more upmarket stores, which do not offer credit sale at all. Coricraft is one such store, which has grown significantly in stature and awareness over the last few years. Coricraft was started over 20 years ago. Today the chain employs over 400 staff, and manufactures in excess of 190 couches per day.
Coricraft prides itself on selling only locally produced furniture, and offers a truly stunning range of couches, bedroom furniture, dining room tables and chairs, as well as TV stands, bookshelves and the like.
On the very “exclusive” side of the furniture store spectrum are stores like Whetherlys. Whetherlys is a self-proclaimed “acknowledged trendsetter in the design of innovative quality furniture and accessories.” (www.whetherlys.co.za). The chain offers locally manufactured and imported products, and has a strong focus on exclusive furniture. The key here is that you purchase signature pieces, as opposed to buying a mass-produced couch.
Finding the right furnishings and home furniture store is really a matter of budget and taste – there are a lot of options, so make sure you check out all the possibilities before making a purchase.