The Minister of Human Settlements, Connie September and representatives from the country’s major commercial banks led by Mr Cas Coovadia, yesterday agreed to consolidate their efforts to ensure the delivery of sustainable human settlements, with a special focus on financing the affordable housing sector.
The meeting was part of strengthening the ongoing relationships between the banking sector and government that was started twenty years ago in the Democratic South Africa.
Minister September said: “Human Settlements is not just about houses. It includes a range of other issues that require the participation of all other stakeholders that have a role to play in the sector.”
The parties acknowledged their contributions, common objectives and agreed that a collaborative effort was required to implement the National Development Plan and address their shared challenges within the spatial development landscape.
“Over the next five years, the department plans to provide over a million housing opportunities to the poor, provide basic services to informal communities, and address the backlogs in sanitation. A critical objective of the department is to revitalise the housing market, and to crowd-in sizeable volumes of private capital to support the affordable housing market. The key question is – what else needs to be done to secure significant levels of capital to support this market,” said Minister September.
The parties have agreed to establish a working implementation team comprising both the public and the private sector, and to be expanded to include further relevant stakeholders, and will provide greater details as to their common programme within the next two weeks.
The meeting has identified areas of interest in realising the government’s goal of delivering one million housing opportunities in the next five years. These areas can be achieved through short, medium and long term collaborations.
The parties will pay a particular focus in the area of affordable housing sector and this include: Existing government instruments like the Financed Linked Subsidy Programme (FLISP), Policy and Regulatory framework, the agreement on the modalities of the Mortgage Default Insurance (MDI); Rental Housing issues and land availability spatial development framework and environment in which human settlements operate.
The Minister confirmed that there would be additional dialogues with other organs of state for their participation, which was welcomed by the Banking Council.