South Africans are in dire need of land for various purposes, especially housing. As it stands, the government is under pressure to provide housing for millions of low income earners and middle class South Africans, some of whom have been waiting for RDP houses since 1994.
In 1994, a 5 million housing target was set by the government. However, because of the long processes that goes into getting land ready for property development, only 3.3 million housing units have been delivered to deserving citizens; a whooping 1.7 shortfall remains, 25 years later.
Some in the private sector, on the other hand, also requires land to build properties to accommodate the fast growing population of South Africa, especially in urban areas. There is, unfortunately, not much the private sector can do to speed up their processes of building housing units unless they are able to acquire already serviced land that’s ready for development.
Bringing a forward thinking solution to the problem, the South African Housing and Infrastructure Fund (SAHIF) has announced that they will fast track the delivery of serviced stands as is much needed by poor and middle class South Africans.
SAHIF is an initiative created with the aim to increase and accelerate delivery of housing units (serviced stands or ultimately fully developed homes) through acquisition of vacant and unused land near cities, town centres, shops, parks, schools, public transport, public health care and places of work.
SAHIF’s founder and CEO Rali Mampeule and his team will utilize their extensive experience in the property sector to speed up the delivery of serviced stands to address the high demand of housing in South Africa.
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Mampeule said, “The objective is to assist government and private sector to address the shortfall of promised homes to South Africans that have not yet been built, which exceeds 1.7m homes”
With the support of government and private land owners, SAHIF has a target of 108,160 service stands units to be delivered over the next 3 years, which will impact over 430 000 lives with a fund size of R15.3 Billion.
“The business model is based on a unique self-funding structure eliminating the requirement of external shareholder investment. “ says Kameel Keshav the CFO of the fund.
The roll-out of this fund has previously created 4,731 jobs and will provide an additional 6,953 jobs in the future. This will essentially create a total of 11,684 jobs by the end of the 3 year term.
President Ramaphosa indicated in his state of the nation address that while great progress has been made in providing housing, more still needed to be done. “While we have made great progress in providing housing, many South Africans still need land to build homes and earn livelihoods. In the next five years, we will accelerate the provision of well-located housing and land to poor South Africans,” President Ramaphosa said in his SONA speech.
Mampeule says SAHIF is answering to the President’s call of ‘Thuma Mina’ with a committed set target within the 3 years period. “As a fund , our long-term goal is to support young, black property professionals in the sponsorship of their studies within the housing sector. This also includes a financial contribution to black-owned SMME’s within the property sector and developing black suppliers in delivery of the fully serviced stands,” he concluded.
