PROPERTY NEWS - What is described as affordable housing is often out of the reach of many South African households, most of whom earn less than R3,500 a month.
Last week, Julian Sendin, in a passionate argument for offering housing to poor families close to the city, wrote that Cape Town suffers from ‘inverse densification’, where the “poor and working class black majority live on the urban periphery … far from jobs, and with poor access to amenities”.
But for affordable housing near the CBD for poor households to become a reality the provincial and City governments are going to have to change the way they implement their housing policies.
Conradie Hospital
The Old Conradie Hospital Development in Pinelands is an excellent example of the problem. It has been praised for being a model development for mixed income housing but according to Western Cape Government documents it is envisaged that less than 10% of the houses to be built will be for households with incomes below R3,500 per month. Yet more than 60% of households in the country earn less than that according to WaziMap.
About half of the housing for the Conradie development is to be “affordable housing” and the other half is to be “open market”. If the figures presented by the Western Cape Government are an illustration of current thinking then it is likely that only a fraction of the affordable housing portion will go to those earning less than R3,500 – people identified by the Western Cape Government as domestic and factory workers who currently work in the area.
Most of the affordable housing will be targeted at those earning between R3,000 and R7,500 a month. A further 20% will be targeted at those earning R3,500 to R15,000 in the form of a FLISP subsidy, which is a subsidy provided to people wishing to purchase a home and who fall within the “gap market”.
The “gap market” refers to families that earn too much to qualify for a subsidised house, but too little to secure a bond. It is this market that the development is mainly targeting, with the Western Cape Government saying that the Conradie Better Living Model will provide a “meaningful” housing opportunity to this group of people and “reduce the current housing backlog”.
The development will indeed reduce the housing backlog for the “gap market” but it will do little to reduce the housing backlog for families waiting for an RDP house, as only about 300 of the 3,600 housing units will be available to them.
What is meant by “affordable housing”?
The term “affordable housing” is often used by government officials, activists and politicians but its definition remains hazy. It is sometimes used to refer to housing that is “affordable” for very poor households but can also be used to refer to higher earning households in the gap market.
But for affordable housing near the CBD for poor households to become a reality the provincial and City governments are going to have to change the way they implement their housing policies.
Conradie Hospital
The Old Conradie Hospital Development in Pinelands is an excellent example of the problem. It has been praised for being a model development for mixed income housing but according to Western Cape Government documents it is envisaged that less than 10% of the houses to be built will be for households with incomes below R3,500 per month. Yet more than 60% of households in the country earn less than that according to WaziMap.
About half of the housing for the Conradie development is to be “affordable housing” and the other half is to be “open market”. If the figures presented by the Western Cape Government are an illustration of current thinking then it is likely that only a fraction of the affordable housing portion will go to those earning less than R3,500 – people identified by the Western Cape Government as domestic and factory workers who currently work in the area.
Most of the affordable housing will be targeted at those earning between R3,000 and R7,500 a month. A further 20% will be targeted at those earning R3,500 to R15,000 in the form of a FLISP subsidy, which is a subsidy provided to people wishing to purchase a home and who fall within the “gap market”.
The “gap market” refers to families that earn too much to qualify for a subsidised house, but too little to secure a bond. It is this market that the development is mainly targeting, with the Western Cape Government saying that the Conradie Better Living Model will provide a “meaningful” housing opportunity to this group of people and “reduce the current housing backlog”.
The development will indeed reduce the housing backlog for the “gap market” but it will do little to reduce the housing backlog for families waiting for an RDP house, as only about 300 of the 3,600 housing units will be available to them.
What is meant by “affordable housing”?
The term “affordable housing” is often used by government officials, activists and politicians but its definition remains hazy. It is sometimes used to refer to housing that is “affordable” for very poor households but can also be used to refer to higher earning households in the gap market.
