Affordable housing in relation to land, finance and tenure in the city of Cape Town

Abstract

Affordable housing delivery has been a major deliverable for the South African government since 1994. The apartheid laws created a fragmented city and had a negative impact on previously vibrant communities. Since the dawn of the new South Africa in 1994, government has created a platform to stimulate the creation of sustainable communities. This has proven to be a daunting task and the progress in this regard has been slow. In 1994, the South African government published the White Paper on A Housing Policy and Strategy for South Africa. This was followed in 2004 by a housing code, A Comprehensive Plan for Sustainable Human Settlements, called “Breaking New Ground”, which contained practical guidelines to implement sustainable human settlement development. The aforementioned was supported by other legislation and the abolishment of apartheid planning legislation. Sustainable human settlement development consists of many facets, but this mini-thesis focused on three themes, being land, finance and tenure options with respect to affordable housing delivery in the City of Cape Town. Ten housing practitioners were identified, representing government and the private sector. A semi-structured interview comprising of 12 questions was used to allow the housing practitioners to share their knowledge on the aforementioned themes during the process. The research found that a shortage of affordable housing is an international problem and not just a South African or City of Cape Town phenomenon. With regard to land it concluded that strategic government-owned land parcels remain underdeveloped. Despite government’s comprehensive finance programmes, the study found that the financial sector had no formal obligation to assist government with the delivery programme. With regard to tenure options, the research concluded that additional forms of tenure, such as incremental and rental options, should become more prevalent in the delivery model.