Major property development for Johannesburg's South

12 November 2014 - 14:22 By Penwell Dlamini
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

The City of Johannesburg will pilot, for the first time, a housing development project where beneficiaries will receive empty stands, get trained and build the houses themselves.

Yesterday, mayor Parks Tau turned the sod at South Hills residential development, which will yield in 5327 housing units built in less than 6km from the Johannesburg City Centre.

South Hills projects will cost R1.9-billion and will be built over six years to completion on 199 hectares of land.

The council has invested R750-million in grants and subsidies and the project is implemented through a partnership with Standard Bank and residential developing firm Calgro M3.

In addition to residential property, the project will include provision of land for two schools, creches, churches, parks, sports facilities and the rehabilitation of the existing swimming pool.

MMC Dan Bovu said the city will use the project to pilot two new housing development systems.

The first will be empty stands for people who can secure a medium term loan from banks and build the house themselves.

“There are people who are saying to us they do not want any subsidy from the city, all they want is the land to build their homes. We will pilot this system through 50 units, once that works we want to roll it out on most of the areas,” Bovu said.

The stands will have basic infrastructure like water, electricity and sanitation.

The second pilot project will be for people who cannot afford the bank loans but are willing to build the houses with their own hands.

Beneficiaries in this category will form a cooperative where they will share the skills among themselves to build the houses. As a group the cooperative will then build one house at a time until every one among the 50 has built their own house. They will not be paid for the construction work they do.

Derek Steyn Calgro M3 executive director said the cooperative will be helped with the design of plans, skills development, electrical connections, plan approvals and registration with the National Home Builders Registration Council.

“If they do it wrong, it will negatively affect the entire project. That is why we will assist them from the design to completion. It will be a learning experience for both us and the city as this has not been done before,” said Steyn.

Bovu said the housing backlog in the city stood between 400,000 to 600,000 units. An estimated 120,000 people join the city every year in search of better opportunities. This pushed the demand for housing to an all-time high.

“When these people arrive in Joburg, they want houses. That is why we are changing the typology of housing development. You are going to see us starting to go high[building flats] because there is not enough land to build free stand houses,” said Bovu.

 

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now