In reply to Colin Arendse’s letter (“DA is building slums”, Cape Times, July 19), where he said I had misunderstood the issues raised.
I would just say I had not bothered to counter all his usual anti-DA vitriol but had tried to shed a little light on the possible solutions to the housing crisis.
As it happens I am very pro building good quality housing wherever possible and to do so with the ultimate aim of invoking the law of supply and demand where increased supply would mean house prices going down or are at least being constrained.
What is surprising and often not understood is that this process actually helps the lower end of the housing market, even though it is the upper to middle end of the market that is being provided for.
It was demonstrated nicely in the UK in the 1980s when long chains of buyers and sellers all moved on the same day.
There was always a cheap house at the bottom of the chain which provided an affordable house or flat for the first-time buyer. At the moment this could only dent the affordable housing shortage but it has one great advantage.
It costs the government nothing!
Every house in the sequence of buyers and sellers generates large transfer tax receipts which could fund many an affordable plot and plan opportunity at the cheaper end of the market. A newly built house at the top of the chain frees up the cheaper house at the bottom.
Tax monies are taken from the rich and passed on down to the poor. Should I mention this to the EFF?
The DA in its “Building firm foundations” housing policy document points out the surprising fact that the provision of infrastructure for new affordable housing projects costs about four times as much as the building costs of the houses themselves.
This suggests that there might be some mileage in encouraging “off grid” solutions where space and opportunity exists.
The DA, in its same policy document, has disclosed that it would cost R58 billion to fix shoddy RDP houses.
Its policy now is to concentrate on site-and-service options where, it is estimated, up to four housing opportunities could be provided for the price of one RDP-type house.
Legal ownership would then be given to the new owner.
I’m sure that many other solutions could be tried, such as building homes on production lines and making them transportable.
Old shipping containers, for example, are sometimes used and converted into very up-market homes.
Transportability could have a few unexpected benefits and maybe could have been used in Knysna if only they were available at the time.