The City says the call for private players to help alleviate its housing shortage was being heeded, but more of them needed to accommodate “inclusionary” housing units.
The City of Johannesburg says it will give private housing developers cost breaks to push them to create inclusionary housing at every development from 2019 onwards.
Reuben Masango, member of the mayoral committee for development planning, said the city would release a housing policy in the first quarter of 2019, which would detail models that private companies could use so that each residential development they brought to market would have an affordable housing component.
Masango spoke at the launch of Africrest Properties’ middle-income residential development called The Village in Bramley, Johannesburg.
He said the call for private players to help the city alleviate its housing shortage was being heeded, but more of them needed to accommodate “inclusionary” housing units. This is despite arguing that it was very difficult to manage these units and expensive to build the units, which could then be let for R800-R1,000 a month.
“You guys need to get creative. We want people in our city to be provided with dignified housing.” said Masango.
“Johannesburg is growing at a rapid rate with 3,000 people entering the city a month in search of work and a place to stay. We have to work together to undo the spatial problems created by the apartheid system. Our inclusionary housing policy will be mandatory, but it will also incentivise business. We can right the wrongs of the past, but we need to do it together.”
Masango said that the policy would “in a nutshell” require one in 20 residential units to be affordable in Johannesburg.