Since 1994, the Gauteng government has spent about R5-billion to provide housing for more than 2,5-million people in the province, housing MEC Paul Mashatile said on Tuesday.
Presenting his department’s annual report to the legislature, Mashatile said this included 275 383 serviced stands, 175 034 houses built,
180 764 houses transferred to their tenants, and 83 690 hostel beds upgraded.
Despite this progress, Mashatile said the housing backlog had increased to about 35 000 households during the past year, bringing the cumulative figure to 423 000 households. A backlog would remain as long as the movement of people from rural areas was not curbed through the development of these areas.
In the year under review some 18 814 stands and 19 990 houses were provided to families at a cost of R255-million.
Under the heading ”incremental housing”, some 18 572 stands and 3 168 houses were provided at a cost of R156-million.
”Social housing” saw 2 337 stands and 2 562 houses provided at a cost of R43-million. Under ”other Housing”, 25 617 units were provided at a cost of R105-million.
Some 19 806 properties were transferred to tenants. Hostel upgrading saw 5 811 beds in hostels upgraded at a cost of about R23-million.
Mashatile said his department still faced considerable challenges. These included a lack of suitably located land for building. There was no point in building houses far from places of work and social amenities, he said.
There were also broader issues such as ”the normalisation of the low cost housing market” which still had to be achieved.
Administrative procedures were being revised to eliminate problems such as underspending of the budget.
Larger subsidies per hostel bed upgraded were expected soon. This would improve the quality of the work done, Mashatile said. – Sapa