Cape Town’s track record of developing social housing projects in well-located areas is not strong.
Only one site – the Maitland Mews development – has been occupied six years since the Affordable Housing Prospectus was launched for Woodstock, Salt River and the inner city.
The process of releasing public land for affordable housing has been fraught with technical, legal, financial and political obstacles and shrouded in mystery.
These are among the findings in the “Releasing Municipal Land for Affordable Housing – Documenting the Experiences of Cape Town, eThekwini, Johannesburg, and Tshwane” report by Development Action Group (DAG) with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the National Association of Social Housing Organisation (NASHO).
The report looks at affordable housing and the release of well-located public land, drawing on Cape Town, eThekwini, Johannesburg, and Tshwane metros.
According to the report, more than three-quarters (76%) of Capetonians earn less than R22 000 per month – the minimum to qualify for a bank loan to buy an entry-level home worth about R650 000. This while the inner city and other sought-after neighbourhoods have become increasingly unaffordable to low-and moderate income households as property prices continue to escalate.
“In the central city, for example, the median price of apartments increased by 32 .8% from R1.28m in 2020 to R1.7m in 2021. Rising property prices contribute to gentrification and displacement of existing residents,” the report says.
The report states that public housing had declined over the last decade, contributing to more informality and a housing backlog with 340 000 households currently registered on the City’s housing waiting list and 270 000 living in informal settlements, mostly on the urban outskirts.
“Local authorities have wide-ranging powers to influence urban land markets in support of affordable housing objectives.
“The strategic management of urban land has been vital in cities as diverse as Amsterdam, Vienna, Helsinki, Tokyo and Seoul. By unlocking public land for lower-cost accommodation, these city governments have contributed to urban densification and regeneration, job creation, economic integration and environmental sustainability.
Improving household access to well-located areas also creates pathways out of poverty and promotes upward social mobility.
“Cape Town’s track record of developing social housing projects in well-located areas is not strong. However, almost out of the blue in 2017 a high-profile ‘Affordable Housing Prospectus’ was launched for Woodstock, Salt River and the Inner-City. Prominent politicians soon announced that the City was selling 11 parcels of municipal land for social and mixed-income housing. Six years later, few of these sites have actually been released, with various technical explanations offered for the hold-up.
“Meanwhile, the City has disposed of more than 400 other properties over the same period, for various purposes including private residential and commercial development. The apparent inconsistencies and lack of progress to release well-located land for affordable housing have attracted growing criticism from civil society organisations.
At the same time, local communities have complained about the opaque procedures governing municipal land disposals and their feelings of exclusion from important decisions in their backyards,” the report read.
However the City said much progress had been made with the City’s Accelerated Land Release for Affordable Housing programme across the metro on well-located land in urban centres.
City spokesperson, Luthando Tyhalibongo said: “Various municipal-owned properties in central Cape Town – with a yield of over 3 500 units – which have already been released to social housing developers, including Pine Road, Dillon Lane, and Pickwick in Woodstock, Salt River Market, and the already tenanted Maitland Mews development.
“In 2023 alone, the City made significant progress and released land for more than 2 300 social housing units across three land parcels – some have been completed and some are being built.
Thousands of new opportunities are currently in the pipeline.
“Overall, the City has a pipeline of 6 500 social housing opportunities across 50 land parcels City-wide.”
He said the national housing regime and the funding allocated to metros to cater to subsidised and affordable housing has not been able to keep up with demand.
“For this reason, the City’s strategy is to enable much more private sector-led affordable housing development in well-located areas.”
Asked for delivery dates on projects it was planning, the City said “various projects across the metro at various stages with various sizes and construction and delivery dates”.
On concerns around public participation, it said:
“All due process is followed when land is released for housing, with extensive public participation opportunities at various stages of the process.”
Cape Times