SPECIAL FOCUS
The Banking Summit saw senior representatives from various stakeholder groups engaging in debate around housing delivery. From left: Sizwe Nxasana, Chairman
of The Banking Association South Africa, Taffy Adler, CEO of the Housing Development Agency, Kecia Rust, Executive Director of the Centre for Affordable Housing
Finance, David van Niekerk, Head of National Treasury’s Neighbourhood Development Programme, Yusuf Patel, MD of Basil Read Developments and Jacques
Celliers, Chairman of The Banking Association South Africa, Executive Board.
including urban development zones (UDZs),
value capture, special economic zones (SEZs),
Department of Trade and Industry incentives
and Jobs Fund windows.
“Spatial and fiscal alignment is critical
to ensure impact,” Van Niekerk said.
“The removal of the regulatory constraints
to developments will reduce time and
financial risks, release land onto the market
and boost investment in productive assets.”
He concluded with a recommendation to
form a spatial contract (to stand alongside
the Social Contract).
introduced (in technology and policy) and a
public/private investment mix is achieved.
He suggested a special dispensation
for affordable housing in terms of bulk
contributions, with lower contributions for
affordable housing developments compared
with upmarket housing. He also recommended
regulations to give effect to priority housing
development areas (PDHA), a single point
for integrated bulk funding approval, and
green funding subsidies and incentives.
These measures, he believes, would assist
greatly in containing costs.
DEVELOPERS’ PERSPECTIVE
Yusuf Patel – MD of Basil Read Developments
and Committee Member of the South
African Affordable Residential Developers
Association (SAARDA), which represents
affordable housing developers (those delivering
housing that costs below R600 000) – posed
the question, “How do we work in a way that
contains costs?”
He suggested that mega-scale projects
are a means of achieving cost reduction.
“Affordability is the big challenge and therefore
the focus has to be on containing delivery
costs,” said Patel. “What can people afford?
A typical gap unit costs R300 000 to R350 000.
Nobody in the gap market can afford that.
For a R350 000 house, you need an income
of R11 667 per month.”
Patel believes that cost containment is
possible if regulatory approval and preparation
time can be reduced, standards are applied
consistently, bulk planning is more efficient,
economies of scale are achieved, innovation is
DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS TO ADDRESS
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
Parks Tau, City of Johannesb