Cape Town: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis handed over more houses to all three Gauteng metros. The houses are state subsidised that were combined over the last five years.
Reportedly, the city is home to the lion’s share of units that were completed since 1994 for over 200,000 which is far more than in any other metro.
According to the Minister of Human Settlements – Thembisile Simelane in a parliamentary reply, 12,402 units were handed over in Cape Town in the last five years, which is more than double, the next metro, eThekwini with 5,355 houses.
The count id also more than all three Gauteng metros combined with Ekhuruleni (5,167), Joburg (4,932) and Tshwane (1,811), and is still falling close to 500 units short of Cape Town’s total.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the evidence is clear and no city is putting national housing grant-funding to better use than Cape Town. They are spending the money they get and are ensuring that quality completed units are handed over to the rightful beneficiaries.
Lewis further stated that as national subsidies have dwindled over the years, the ‘free’ housing programme has become increasingly reserved for the most vulnerable and poorest.
Cape Town is leading on this pro-poor delivery, to lead on enabling much more affordable housing delivery by the private sector. He added that through accelerated land release, they are reducing red tape for micro-developers and a range of incentives to drive affordable rental housing.
According to Mayor Lewis, they will meet the housing demands by state-led delivery and by repositioning the cities as key enablers of much more private sector-led housing delivery.
Cape Town is leading the way nationally with several initiatives that includes land release for affordable housing as the City of Cape Town 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.
The land discount guidelines allowed the city owned land to be heavily discounted, maximising the number of social housing units developed as a national first. Utility discounts for Social Housing for water, electricity and property rates bills for social housing properties as another first one.
The Municipal Planning By-Law Amendments to streamline development approvals and reduce red tape, especially by micro-developers building small scale units.
The project also supports Micro-Developers by 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.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements – Councillor Carl Pophaim said that besides ensuring that pro-poor grant-funding is well-spent and the City of Cape Town also plays an enabling role in state-subsidised housing developments delivered by the partners in the Western Cape Government and national Housing Development Agency, which contributes to strong performance relative to other cities of Cape Town.
Pophaim said that the metro also places a big emphasis on home ownership by including the accelerated handover of historical title deeds. They have further launched the unique ‘no cost transfer’ programme to turn thousands of tenants into homeowners by transferring the affordable rental units of the City of Cape Town to beneficiaries at no cost.