The City of Cape Town will launch its Land Release Programme for More Affordable Housing at its first Affordable Housing Indaba set to take place later this week. 

The city says the programme has been informed by its assessment of suitable city-owned land, including land in and near the Cape Town central business district and other urban centres in the metro, to determine whether some of these properties could be developed for affordable housing opportunities. 

The Indaba seeks to bring together affordable housing partners, other government stakeholders, financiers and private developers to unlock opportunities on well-located land that will be released by the city. 

“The outcomes of the Indaba will inform the city’s accelerated Affordable Housing Programme,” says Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

“We hope to learn from the private sector and other stakeholders, especially about what they require for sustainable private and public partnerships that can accelerate affordable housing provision and propel Cape Town into a spatially inclusive metro with greater access to affordable housing.”

Hill-Lewis says the city will also show the private sector what it has available in terms of city incentives and other services on offer to help enable development. 

“The Land Release Programme provides some of the building blocks of the new city of hope we are building together,” he notes.

“The city’s land release for housing is, however, not sufficient on its own. 

“We continue to call on national government to release its large pieces of suitable land to the city for the development of affordable housing. 

“National government sits on the largest well-located mega-properties in Cape Town for housing, with a yield of potentially over 100 000 units. 

“These properties include Wingfield and the completely under-utilised sprawling parliamentary village of Acacia Park, where a few MPs occasionally reside. We will continue to work on unlocking that land,” says Hill-Lewis.

He adds that the City of Cape Town currently has more than 6 500 social housing units in the overall pipeline across 50 land parcels city-wide, including 2 000 social housing units in the central Cape Town area.

Apart from the social housing units in the pipeline, there are also 2 500 opportunities nearing completion, or projects that are about to begin construction along the Voortrekker Road corridor and other economic nodes. 

Current central Cape Town social housing projects include packaging the Fruit and Veg site (around 150 social housing units) and the first precinct in Parow (around 350 units) for release to the market within the current year.

In Maitland (around 200 units) is under construction.

Projects nearing construction phase include Pine Road (around 240 units) and Dillon Road (around 150 units) in Woodstock, as well as Salt River Market (around 200 units).

Projects undergoing land-use management processes to be made available for social housing include New Market (around 200 units), Pickwick (around 600 units), and Woodstock Hospital precinct (around 700 units).

Western Cape government-driven projects, supported by the city, include the Conradie Park development in the inner city feeder suburb of Pinelands, Founders Garden, and Helen Bowden Nurses Home in Green Point. 

All these projects have significant potential for social housing unit yields, says the city.

500 000 Housing Opportunities Needed
“Between 1996 and 2016, Cape Town’s population increased by 56% to more than 4.3-million residents, and over the same period, there was a 94% increase in the number of households, to around 1.36-million,” says Human Settlements MMC Malusi Booi.

“To accommodate projected growth, as well as to manage the existing housing demand, it is estimated that roughly 500 000 housing opportunities need to be created between now and 2028.

“Urbanisation will continue and the associated growth in informality. 

“This is not a problem that is unique to Cape Town. The city developed its Human Settlements Strategy, which looks at how to deliver more affordable housing, in partnership, at scale and with innovation. The Affordable Housing Indaba is a tangible action step emanating from the strategic shift that the city has made,” says Booi.

“The broadening of the city’s strategic role from regulator to greater enabler of affordable housing, in partnership with all role players, including emerging developers, traditional private developers, social housing partners, and households themselves, is critical to meeting an increasing demand for affordable housing, especially for those earning below R22 000 a month.”