Housing agency one step away
Bathandwa Mbola
30 June 2008
The National Council of Provinces has adopted the Housing Development Agency Bill which, once signed by the President, will pave the way for the creation of an agency to coordinate and manage the acquisition of land for the development of sustainable human settlements.
Access to well-located suitable land has been identified as one of the biggest bottlenecks in speeding up the delivery of houses in consultations with developers, the banking sectors and other stakeholders.
Another key aim of the Housing Development Agency is to minimise red tape in the approval of housing developments in both the private and public sector - by acting as the facilitator between the department and banks, the agency will help in the delivery of the department's target.
The Bill will not only allow the outcome of wide-ranging consultations, but also an examination of how other countries dealt with their housing needs.
"The size of the housing backlog in South Africa means we must explore all possible avenues of delivery," said Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in Cape Town last week.
Since 1994, 2.6-million houses have been provided but the housing backlog still stands at 2.1-million units. It is estimated that 1.1-million of these are for earmarked for people living in informal settlements and the rest for backyard dwellers.
Countries like Namibia, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and China have all established similar housing agencies to focus on stated government housing goals.
The department says the pace of housing provision can not keep up with the backlog and additional demand created by continuing urbanisation, estimated conservatively to be increasing by about 3% annually, or about 1.2-million people.
A study conducted by accounting firm KPMG in 2006 concluded that if the government aimed to eliminate the housing backlog by 2012, it would have a funding shortfall of R102-billion, should housing budgets only increase at the current rate.
Source: BuaNews
