SA Affordable Housing September / October 2017 // Issue: 66 | Page 15

EVENTS
second plenary, addressing the challenges of delivering
adequate housing from a global perspective.
He cited examples of how other countries address this
problem, for instance how Singapore eradicated all slums
within a few decades. “It’s a global problem. Cities are
unaffordable. Housing is unaffordable. We need heavy
government intervention to make housing accessible for
the population,” said Acioly.
After morning refreshments, Andrew Chimphondah,
CEO of Housing Investment Partners, looked at providing
innovative housing finance solutions to close the gap
between the supply and demand of affordable
housing units.
Alvin Paules, chief enterprise architect from SAP Africa,
spoke about delivering game-changing innovation and
value in the housing sector by leveraging the innovative
use of technology for transformation. “The demand is
going up but the skill in workforce is going down. That’s a
problem. We need to start doing things differently,”
he said.
Before lunch, the public-private dialogue on ‘Affordable
housing: a fact or fiction?’ took place and discussed the
major initiative