PROPERTY & INVESTMENT
sewage treatment plant . This gas is piped back to the connected houses where it is used for cooking . Rainwater harvesting is also
done individually by each household using water tanks , a Biolytix system and wetland . Sewage is converted into grey water that can be used for flushing toilets or irrigating non-food plants .
Financial solutions for lower-income families
The initial costing of sites in the village was calculated on both a commercial and subsidy basis to enable people who couldn ’ t afford it to acquire land . For this reason , every plot had two prices : a commercial price and a subsidy price . A person who qualified for a government housing subsidy of R3,500 or less , would pay R120 per square metre for their plot . People who didn ’ t qualify for a subsidy would pay R700 per square metre .
‘ This allowed people to choose plots in a natural way rather than how it ’ s normally done : one area for financially wealthier people and another area for financially less wealthy people . As a result , you will find low-income and middle-income people living next to and between each other , and not in clearly divided areas ,’ says Jess Schulschenk , co-director of the Sustainability Institute .
‘ Lower-income families also benefited from the construction team used to build their houses , as the builders were part of a labour training scheme that enabled Lynedoch Development to get subsidies from the government as a construction training programme .’
The first houses from 2004 – 2006 are still owned by the original owners . One of the owners shared that , depending on the size of the house , at that time prices started from R150,000 for a two- to three-bedroom house . Today houses can sell for millions in the Eco-Village .
8 F E A T U R E D
Guided by people and public leadership
‘ The Eco-Village is not an island , and is not immune from realities of life . Yet it still holds strongly to the original vision of living sustainably and maintaining a socially mixed community ,’ says Schulschenk .
‘ There is no sustainable living , no matter how good your energy usage and waste management systems , if society remains unequal and unjust . To this end , the Village attempts to grapple with social injustice and exclusivity at every level , while implementing feasible ecological interventions , often on a small scale . We are not a case study for photovoltaic success ; rather we are a case study for an approach to sustainability that begins with people .’
Michelle Holdsworth