SA Affordable Housing March / April 2018 // Issue: 69 | Page 40

AFFORDABLE HOUSING MATTERS
FEATURES
The transformative impact of effective social housing goes beyond the beneficiaries.
38
MARCH - APRIL 2018
AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING
While this is a very welcome paradigm shift, it presents
several challenges to those involved in delivering this
appropriate social housing, not least of which is a shortage
of available, well-positioned land and the significantly
higher costs involved in developing that land properly. In
an already challenged economy, the higher cost factor can
be particularly limiting in terms of government’s ability to
deliver on its social housing promises. The highly
regulated nature of social housing also demands a
specialist approach to manage specific risks.
The solution, of course, is for more impactful affordable
housing partnerships to be established between the
country’s public and private sectors. In recent years, a
number of these strong partnerships have evolved, and
many of the participants in these partnerships – such as
the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), The
Housing Impact Fund South Africa (HIFSA), the Centre for
Affordable Housing Finance in Africa and International
Housing Solutions (IHS), to name a just a few, are
succeeding in demonstrating how much can be achieved
through a committed, innovative, partnership-driven
approach to social housing delivery.
As a market leader in commercial property finance,
Nedbank CIB has the privilege of partnering with many of
these housing organisations and authorities and has
witnessed first-hand the transformative impact that
effective and appropriate social housing can have – not
just on the beneficiaries of these housing opportunities,
but on the sustainable economic growth of communities
and the country.
Access to housing is, and always will be, a cornerstone of
South Africa’s socio-economic advancement, effective
redress and real opportunity creation for all. As such, it is
encouraging that government recently prioritised social
housing delivery and has set a medium-term target for
social housing stock of 27 000 units. While this represents
a step change in fiscal commitment to the social housing
industry, the public and private sector - including property
financiers, developers and investors – must work together
The private and public sector must work together to accelerate
mobilisation in the market.
More impactful affordable housing
partnerships to be established
between the country’s public and
private sectors.
to find solutions to accelerate the mobilisation of this key
segment of the market to ensure its continued growth and
maximise its effectiveness as a transformation lever that
helps create better futures for all South Africans.