SPECIAL FOCUS
Banking Summit:
Housing delivery
The fifth annual Banking Summit, titled “A Partnership for Housing Delivery”,
brought together top representatives from the public and private sectors to discuss
possible solutions to South Africa’s housing problem. By Tamara Oberholster
Despite the robust debate, there were still plenty of smiles at the Banking Summit. From left: Sizwe Nxasana, Chairman of The Banking Association South Africa,
Nhlanhla Nene, Minister of Finance, Cas Coovadia, MD of The Banking Association South Africa, Parks Tau, Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg.
H
osted by The Banking
Association South Africa,
“A Partnership for Housing
Delivery” followed on from
the signing of the Social
Contract for the Development
of Human Settlements on 17 October 2014,
which commits signatories to the delivery of
1.5 million housing opportunities by 2019.
Providing a platform for robust debate,
the Banking Summit honed in on human
settlements as one of the three areas of
priority identified within the National
Development Plan (NDP) by the
banking sector.
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
David van Niekerk, Head of National
Treasury’s Neighbourhood Development
Programme, believes that institutional
fragmentation in the built environment
delivery process is to blame for the low return
on investment (ROI), and that a systems
approach may be the answer needed and an
opportunity for collaboration. His presentation
raised the opportunity of spatial targeting.
“The built environment is not geared
towards the poor. Because of the immovability
of built environment assets, time and transport
costs come into play,” he said.
Pointing to cities as the engines of the
economy, Van Niekerk highlighted the need
for mixed-use precincts in the restructuring
of cities, as well as identifying strategic nodes
in townships and linking them with transport
to city CBDs, creating places of higher access.
“Prioritising networks relative to each other
enables us to prioritise projects for higher ROI,”
he said. “Precinct planning needs to happen in
hubs, along corridors and in CBDs.”
He called for a holistic built environment
investment strategy that goes beyond looking
purely at costs and benefits, to align and
restructure fiscal and regulatory economic
development incentives and instruments, ▶
Edition 12 | BANKERSA
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