Cape Town releases CBD land for social housing. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced that 237 social housing units are to be built in the inner city as part of the affordable housing drive of the City of Cape Town.
This followed the approval of the final release of the city-owned land known as the ‘Fruit & Veg’ site.
Reportedly the 3,300 m/sq. property is located between Kent and Bloemhof Streets, right on the edge of District Six and the CBD. The site is within walking distance of the city centre, MyCiTi bus stations, schools, universities and a range of economic opportunities.
The social housing unit yield has increased from the originally proposed 180 to 237 units as part of the proposal by developer, YG Group. Overall, the mixed-use development will include 375 residential units in total and 435 m/sq. of retail space.
Mayor Geordin Hill lewis said that this is the kind of address that can change lives of many people and open up entire new avenues of opportunity for them. Social housing is being maximised on this site, thanks to a range of new measures passed by the City of Cape Town for including guidelines for discounting land, property rates and utility charges for this development.
Lewis said that they pledged to speed up the delivery of more affordable accommodation across Cape Town, and so far this term they’ve released more land for social and affordable housing than in the ten years prior combined.
According to him, this is just one of the important ways in which they are breaking down the spatial legacy of the apartheid era by offering far more affordable housing options in all well-located urban centres in the metro where people want to live and work well.
Mayor Hill-Lewis highlighted the progress, made under the priority programme of the City of Cape Town for Accelerated Land Release for Affordable Housing, such as:
- An affordable housing pipeline of 12,000 well-located units across the Cape Town, including thousands of units in inner city areas such as Woodstock, Salt River and Maitland.
- Significant legislative reform to make it quicker and easier to get building approval in Cape Town.
- Hands-on support for micro-developers including a new township development fund to help reduce development costs, and pre-approved building plan templates.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements – Councillor Carl Pophaim said that while the accelerated land release in Cape Town meant the project of the City of Cape Town, now gets featured strongly in national funding pipeline of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), constraints to the national housing subsidy regime present the biggest handbrake to the city’s social and affordable housing programme.
He further stated that to really ignite the social housing sector in South Africa, they need national government to come to the party when it matters, in their actual budgets, as opposed to the promises made during State of the Nation Addresses.
Notably, pro-poor grant funding to metros that spend these funds well and responsibly is one of the best ways national government can spend its money. It is crucial that all three spheres of government pull together in the same direction to deliver affordable housing at scale and pace.