Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said more state-subsidised houses had been handed over in Cape Town than all three Gauteng metros combined over the last five years. Cape Town is also home to the lion’s share of units completed since 1994 – more than 200 000 – far more than in any other metro. This according to a parliamentary reply by Human Settlements Minister Thembisile Simelane. Over the last five years 12 401 units were handed over in Cape Town, more than double the next metro, eThekwini (5 355). It is also more than all three Gauteng metros combined, with Ekhuruleni (5 167), Joburg (4 932) and Tshwane (1 811) still falling close to 500 units short of Cape Town’s total.
Clear evidence
“The evidence is clear,” Hill-Lewis said, “no city is putting national housing-grant funding to better use than Cape Town. Not only are we spending the money we get, but we’re also ensuring quality completed units are handed to the rightful beneficiaries. As national subsidies have dwindled over the years the ‘free’ housing programme has become increasingly reserved for the most vulnerable and poorest. Not only does Cape Town lead on this pro-poor delivery, but we are also leading on enabling much more affordable housing delivery by the private sector, through accelerated land release, reducing red tape for micro-developers and a range of incentives to drive affordable rental housing.
“We will only ever meet housing demand, not by state-led delivery but by repositioning our cities as key enablers of much more private sector-led housing delivery.”
Cape Town is leading the way nationally with several initiatives, including:
- Land release for affordable housing: the City has released more land for affordable housing in the last three years than in the previous decade combined, with a pipeline of 12 000 well-located affordable housing units close to the CBD and other important parts of the metro.
- Land Discount Guidelines allowing City-owned land to be heavily discounted, maximising the number of social housing units developed, a national first.
- Utility Discounts for Social Housing for water, electricity, and property rates bills for social housing properties, another first.
- Municipal Planning Bylaw Amendments to streamline development approvals and reduce red tape, especially by micro-developers building small scale units.
-Support for Micro-Developers: including pre-approved building plans and development charge discounts to encourage the safe and compliant construction of small-scale rental units in townships and areas of highest demand. “Besides ensuring that pro-poor grant funding is well spent,” said Carl Pophaim, Mayco member for Human Settlements. “The City also plays an enabling role in state-subsidised housing developments delivered by our partners in the Western Cape Government and national Housing Development Agency, which contributes to Cape Town’s strong performance relative to other cities. Our metro also places a big emphasis on home ownership, including the accelerated handover of historical title deeds. We have further launched our unique ‘no cost transfer’ programme to turn thousands of tenants into homeowners by transferring the City’s affordable rental units to beneficiaries at no cost.”
Since 1994, significantly more state-subsidised housing units were completed in Cape Town (202 070) despite the metro having a smaller population than Joburg (179 114).
