18 / 68
October 2015
P
ilot projects such as Cosmo
City and Cornubia in KwaZulu-
Natal are shining examples of
mixed use and integrated develop-
ments. The projects of scale offer
different housing typologies and
includes components of retail, com-
mercial, light industrial, schools, clin-
ics, transport nodes, police stations,
community centres and recreational
facilities.
The Minister and her teamare cur-
rently in the adjudication process to
determine the breakdown of projects
across the nine provinces and the
timelines for the roll out.
Another key factor in the hous-
ing roll out is the Finance Linked
Individual Subsidy Programme
(FLISP). It is aimed at providing low
income earners such as nurses and
policeman, who earn too much to
qualify for government subsidised
housing, to buy their own homes.
She admits that there were hitches in
the systems, the subsidy programme
unfortunately has had a number of
challenges because of the capacity
challenges to roll out the programme
and the approval turn around period.
This subsidy has the potential to cre-
ate massive housing opportunities
in the Gap and Affordable housing
market. It has not yet performed but
with money once again allocated in
the housing budget for this subsidy
programme, this is about to change
when the Minister officially announc-
es the new Housing Finance Corpo-
ration. The new state-owned entity
will, she says, be formed before the
end of October this year. The existing
government development finance
institutions will fall under the new
body and will be led by the National
Housing Finance Corporation. She
says, ”We are re-engineering our DFIs
so that they can respond to our needs
and perform.” Sisulu also added that
government has concluded agree-
ments with labour to introduce a gov-
ernment housing scheme for lower in-
come earners. This is being assessed
and will involve Public Service and
Administration and the banking
sector.
With the housing sector stakehold-
ers, developers, builders and contrac-
tors firmly behind the Minister, she
says, “We are extremely excited about
these projects. Banks are willing to
lend andwe need to ensure that there
is affordable stock. We have done a
great deal of work to get on track.”
■
77 Cosmo Cities and much more…..
At the Human Settlements Developer and Contractor Workshop
media briefing, Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu has
promised to fast track housing and the new 77 catalytic projects will
be based on Cosmo City. North of Johannesburg, Cosmo City was
the original blueprint for Human Settlements first fully integrated
housing development.
Housing