18 May 1997
8 May 1997
MAJOR BOOSTS FOR HOUSING DELIVERY
Real progress is being made by the ANC in delivering on its commitment to house
the nation. The Housing Minister, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, has announced a
series of major initiatives that will not only help to achieve the target of
a million new homes to be built or under construction by 1999, but will
also accelerate the drive to sweep away the legacy of Apartheid in housing.
Housing the Nation - Facts and Figures
Over 555 000 subsidies have already been released
192,815 houses have already been built or are under construction
805 subsidised housing projects have been approved
Most subsidies are granted to people earning below R800 a month.
Major New Initiatives
NOMVULA
NOMVULA is a computer-based data collection and monitoring system,
updated every 24 hours with information collected by dedicated staff in
every province
It produces reliable, up-to-date figures on subsidised housing and
house construction progress in every locality, every region, and every
province in South Africa
The construction approval process has been broken down into 15 milestones,
and NOMVULA tracks every project against these milestones, identifying
blockages so that they can be removed, providing an early warning system
to alert national and provincial housing departments of problems, and giving
automatic prompts to provincial housing officials to take action at certain
stages of the approval process
Housing officials will now visit every project at least three times
during the construction phase to check on progress and quality
NOMVULA has helped to cut the time it takes from project approval to
the delivery of the first home from 24 months to just seven months.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES
Applications currently take between six and nine months to process,
and every province uses a different application form - one provincial form
is 27 pages long
A new, nine-page, standardised application form is being made available
to provinces to speed up the application process.
RURAL HOUSING INITIATIVES
In rural areas, particularly the former self-governing territories
and the former TBVC states, where freehold ownership is uncommon, occupational
rights will now be considered as providing sufficient security of tenure
to access housing subsidies
The Rural Housing Loan Fund has been established to open up access
to housing finance for rural communities.
CAPACITY BUILDING
A housing task team has been put in every province to increase expertise
A two-year training programme is to be launched to offer intensive
training of councillors and provincial and municipal housing officials,
to equip them with the skills to advise stakeholders on all matters relating
to housing.
EXTENDING HOUSING FINANCE
The National Housing Finance Corporation has been established
to raise funds in the financial markets and channel it into socially-desirable
housing finance
The NHFC has made funds worth R122.4 million available for housing
improvements
Approval has already been granted for 118,000 families to access credit
facilities over the next four to five years
135,000 families stand to benefit from funds worth R250 million which
the NHFC is planning to approve
NHFC plans to grant facilities or facilitate funding to the value of
R1.2 billion to eligible housing institutions to construct, acquire or
upgrade 50,000 housing units and make available additional housing units
in the market
The Mortgage Indemnity Fund was established to indemnify accredited
banks against losses, to encourage banks to resume lending in areas where
they have stopped and to mediate in disputes between government and private
sector housing finance. It has already granted over 90,000 new loans worth
R6.2 billion; has solved major bond disputes in two areas, agreed to mediate
in 13 other disputes and has been asked to mediate in ten others
The National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency has issued
guarantees valued at R19.4 million for bridging finance to 30 projects
in six provinces, for the construction of more than 11,844 houses with
a total value of R197.3 million.
SUPPORT FOR BOND DEFAULTERS
Servcon manages some 14,000 repossessed properties on behalf of mortgage
lenders. Since June 1995, over 3,500 Servcon clients had signed agreements
to buy back their homes, and almost 4,000 had signed rightsizing agreements
to allow them to relocate to more affordable properties
Around 10,500 non-performing loans have been taken over from the banks
and absorbed into the Servcon programme so far in 1997
The Department of Housing has made a further R50 million available
to Servcon to be used to acquire right-sizing stock, to create affordable
accommodation.
REGULATION
A Bill will be drafted to end self-regulation by the building industry,
and give statutory recognition to the National Home Builders Registration
Council (NHBRC)
Statutory recognition will protect consumers against shoddy workmanship
and unscrupulous builders
The Bill will ensure every builder accessing credit or building houses
using Government subsidy will have to be registered with the NHBRC.
ADVICE SERVICES
The Department of Housing helped secure R1 million in USAid for the
Housing Consumer Protection Trust
The Trust runs advice centres offering consumers expert advice, information
and legal assistance on housing issues
It also runs South Africa`s only toll-free housing advice telephone
service, offering consumers advice on a range of housing issues. The number
is 0800-111-663.
DRAFT HOUSING BILL
Proposes to give provincial and local government the power to administer
national housing programmes
Proposes to give municipalities the powers to plan, budget, manage,
administer and maintain housing provision once capital investment has been
made
Proposes guidelines for the accreditation of municipalities, and the
introduction of a competitive element in the tendering process for infrastructure
and house building contracts.
Housing the Nation is not just a slogan - it is a reality.
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