The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for an end to the policy of banning new owners of RDP houses from selling them for eight years.
The proposal is contained in the DA’s new “policy on housing and housing-related urban development,” which MP Emma Louise Powell released on Thursday (7 April).
DA’s proposed housing policies
Powell said the DA’s policy will bring “innovative solutions to tackling South Africa’s housing and homelessness crisis,” adding that the party will move legislative changes in Parliament in the coming months.
“The national Housing Act needs to be amended to address the current eight-year prohibition on selling government-subsidised houses. This Act makes it illegal for recipients of subsidised houses to trade up or leverage their asset to generate capital. This bizarre restriction must be removed,” Powell said.
“We will also address the scourge of illegal land grabs by tabling an amendment to the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act, which permits for expropriation of property without compensation, and allows land grabbers to jump the housing queue.”
She slammed the government for failing to provide adequate affordable housing for South Africa’s underprivileged citizens, adding that the 3 million units provided since 1994 are not enough.
“With an estimated 13 million people living in informality, a backlog of 2.1 million housing units, and homelessness and joblessness ever increasing, the crisis is a ticking bomb,” she said.
Government policy changes
Meanwhile, Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced several housing policy changes during a media briefing last week.
Among these changes is the digitisation of the RDP housing beneficiary list to make it more “reliable, transparent [and] easily accessible, and [to] avoid fraud and corruption.” In addition, the government has expanded the household income band for its social housing rental units.
“We have revised the bands for households earning from R1,850 to R22,000 gross monthly income to qualify as opposed to the previous qualification criteria for household income from R1,500 to R15,000. This will align with the broader definition of the affordable housing programmes such as FLISP (Finance-Linked Individual Subsidy Programme),” Kubayi explained.
FLISP will also extend to non-mortgage housing finance facilities and may be used in combination with one of the following products and situations:
- Housing loans granted or guaranteed by a pension and provident fund.
- Unsecured housing loans from any registered lender.
- Housing loans granted or guaranteed by cooperative- or community[1]based savings scheme.
- FLISP can be used in combination with individual own resources or savings.
- Housing loans supported by employer-based schemes such as Government Employees Housing Scheme or private sector Employer Assisted Housing Schemes (EAHS).
- Housing loans supported by Permission-to-Occupy (PTOs) issued by government or recognised Traditional Authority.
- With effect from 1 April 2022, the FLISP quantum range increases by between 7.2% and 10%.