Housing delivery in South Africa needs to double from the current delivery rate of about 250 000 housing units a year to 500 000 units if the backlog is to be removed and supply to new urban residents to be fulfilled, Director General of Land and Housing Irumuleng Kotsoane said on Thursday.
Kotsoane said there is currently a backlog of about 2,4-million housing units in the country.
He acknowledged, at a media briefing at Parliament, that the pressure to deliver so many housing units — and to reach the target of removing all informal settlements by 2014 — will be a significant challenge given that South Africa has also embarked on a massive capital investment drive to improve infrastructure, including transport.
In addition, Kotsoane said there is already pressure to import cement as South Africa gears up to provide facilities — including stadiums — for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
A quarterly press briefing document, handed to journalists, reports that since democracy in 1994 nearly 2,1-million houses have been built for the poor or are under construction.
The single most important service-delivery indicator, says the report, is the number of houses completed or under construction. “There have been fluctuations in housing delivery, but since 2003/04 there has been consistent growth in the number of houses delivered.
“Delivery has increased from 193 615 houses completed or under construction in 2003/04 to 217 348 in 2004/05 and 252 834 houses … for the financial year 2005/06,” notes the report. — I-Net Bridge