Project brings affordable rents to Joburg city centre

28 September 2016 - 15:12 By Penwell Dlamini
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Human settlements, Jacob Mamabolo
Human settlements, Jacob Mamabolo
Image: Peter Mogaki/ Sowetan

The Gauteng Partner Fund (GPF) has joined forces with private sector to deliver affordable rental units in the Johannesburg city centre.

On Wednesday morning‚ Gauteng human settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo opened a newly renovated building on corner President and Nugget street in Joburg which will provide affordable housing to people wanting to live in the city centre.

The new building which was under-utilised and dilapidated has been named Hollywood Centre by the project owner Solomon Ramalamula‚ MD of Take Shape Properties.

He found the building in a bad state and was forced to go court get some of the authorities to act and get his project completed.

Hollywood Centre has 101 rental units which include 30 bachelors‚ 38 one-bedroom and 33 two-bedroom units. Monthly rents range from R2100 to R4250.

The Gauteng Property Fund invested R10 million‚ R19.1 million came from Trust for Urban Housing Finance and the client‚ Take Shape Property Management‚ came up with R900 000‚ equivalent of 3% of the total project cost.

It has been a struggle for the City of Johannesburg to attract investment in the city centre as property developers have moved to Rosebank and Sandton‚ leaving the area to decay amid crime and filth.

The current Gauteng provincial government administration has committed to invest about R10 billion into the city to bring back its spark and make it a livable space.

Premier Paul Mashatile told guests at the launch that more partners were needed in order to tackle the problem of hijacked buildings.

“We need to do more of these projects. Those buildings that are hijacked‚ we need to get them back so that we can make them buildings for people that are so in need for accommodation. The inner city regeneration will be achieved through sustained investment by private sector‚ government and the NGO sector as well‚” Mashatile said.

GPF is an entity of Gauteng provincial government established in 2002 to invest in social rental housing projects. It has since expanded its mandate to the human settlements projects.

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