We invested in bonds through EasyEquities and achieved a 22% annualised return

Daily Investor invested in South African government bonds through EasyEquities over the last year and achieved an annualised return of 22% with relatively low risk.

Bonds are an attractive asset class for investors looking for a stable yield, as they guarantee a return over a set period.

Bonds promise to repay a principal amount at a future date and offer predictable cash flows through predefined coupon payments, typically twice a year.

However, because it is not easy to invest in bonds, market participation was traditionally reserved for the exclusive few.

EasyEquities changed the game by making it easy for retail investors to invest in South African government bonds of various maturities.

Investors also don’t have to worry about liquidity and can buy and sell the bonds at any time through the EasyEquities platform and their ZAR wallet.

In June 2024, Daily Investor decided to invest in South African government bonds as its resident analyst, Drikus Greyling, was confident that interest rates had peaked.

To maximise the benefits of falling interest rates, we picked long-term government bonds as they are the most price-sensitive to interest rate changes.

We selected the longest-term South African government bond available on EasyEquities, a 25-year bond maturing in February 2048.

We placed our first trade in June 2024, locking in a yield of 12.04%. Over the next 4 months, we placed 13 more trades.

As most economists, and Greyling, predicted, interest rates had peaked, and the first interest rate cut occurred in September 2024.

As bond prices respond positively to interest rate cuts, Daily Investor’s bond portfolio saw significant price returns as the bond prices started to increase.

By October 2024, bond yields were no longer as attractive as they had been, as bond prices saw a strong rally.

We held back from further trades and were happy to collect our locked-in yield of 11.09% at the time.

However, in April 2025, bond prices fell dramatically, pushing up bond yields again. We decided to buy more bonds at an 11.34% yield. Our current bond portfolio has a yield of 11.11%

The bond portfolio has made an overall capital return of 11.30% and a coupon return of 7.27%, giving the overall portfolio an 18.30% return.

When calculating a time-weighted rate of return, which accounts for the timing of the various trades, the portfolio has made a 25.64% return over 14 months.

This translates to an annualised return of 21.61%, which we are happy with considering the low risk profile of bonds.

Hat tip to Charles Savage and EasyEquities for making it easy for retail investors to invest in South African government bonds.