Housing Programmatic Comparison – Logframe

The study shows that only 123 000 housing units are delivered per year, significantly fewer than the national Department of Housing’s published number of 254 000 units. The full cost of an RDP house (top structure and local reticulation) is calculated at R153 000, as against a subsidy of just R90 000 at the time of the study. The additional costs are largely met from municipal infrastructure funding and other spending programmes, while the mobilisation of private finance is insufficient. Census data suggests that about 2 million households did not have adequate housing in 2011. At the present pace of delivery, it would take 30 years to eradicate this backlog using the RDP and informal settlement model of delivery. Should delivery continue within the current policy parameters, the cost of eradicating the backlog over ten years would be R600 billion (or R60 billion per year). However, as current spending is only R15 billion per year, such a significant increase does not seem feasible.