- The City of Cape Town has released land for 680 social housing units in Ottery and Lansdowne, sparking mixed reactions.
- While some residents hope for dignified homes, others are concerned about infrastructure and the criteria for affordable housing.
- The land sale will include clauses to ensure the properties are used for affordable housing or revert back to City ownership.
The release of land for affordable housing developments in Ottery and Lansdowne, following a public-participation process, has received mixed reactions.
Last week, Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim announced the release of land for a potential 680 social housing units at two vacant and unused sites.
The land is set to be released via an open, competitive tendering process pending City council authorisation later this month.
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Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis made the announcement last week: “Hundreds more families are set to benefit as our priority programme for well-located affordable housing land release continues its momentum with these Lansdowne and Ottery sites,” he said.
The Ottery land, a 1,6ha site with the potential for 375 social housing units, is located near Ottery Road and bordering Enslin, Crescent and Sauer roads.
“In the first two years of our programme, we have already released sites with a yield of over 4 200 affordable units, including in Cape Town’s inner city and other well-located economic nodes,” added Hill-Lewis.
Affordable housing
Pophaim shared that the City’s affordable housing opportunities had proven to be a game changer.
“The City’s affordable-housing pipeline includes land parcels expected to deliver more than 12 000 residential opportunities across the metro,” he said. “We look forward to enabling many more affordable housing opportunities. These have proven to be a game changer for the thousands of families already tenanted at various well-located developments around the metro.”
According to the City new guidelines will be used to discount the land-sale price and assist developers to maximise affordable housing in a viable manner.
“The land has an estimated market value of R56 million across the Ottery and Lansdowne sites,” Pophaim pointed out. “The sale of these properties will also include a clause to ensure the land is used for affordable housing by allowing the properties to revert back to City ownership if this objective is not met.”
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Reacting on social media, residents hoped for dignified homes.
“Please consider not making it RDP and actually give people a dignified home,” a social-media user commented. “Hope the City is thinking long-term to also release land in the CBD.
Others hoped the affordable housing criteria would include the pensioners.
“All good and well, but what about seniors? Why does social housing have to discriminate against age? I’ve seen several handovers to people so young, yet there are others who have been on a waiting list for decades. Where’s the fairness?”
A third person commented that there should be a holistic approach to social housing.
“Housing is great . . . but I hope that infrastructure like roads . . . schools . . . shops . . . access to public transport are also all in place,” he wrote. “I see so many new housing developments going up, but then it leads to massive traffic issues, children not in schools because schools are already full, and now understaffed teachers are losing their jobs.”
