The City of Cape Town has approved the release of various parcels of land in Parow to be used for the development of social housing.
The land, totalling approximately 13,000 square metres, is part of a greater movement of land release and public private sector partnerships for the delivery of social rental housing at scale.
These pockets of land in Parow are situated near Voortrekker Road, the Tygerberg and Unisa campuses, and many more well-located desirable areas, says Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
The precincts will have an estimated yield of 650 social housing units.
“This is over and above the five inner-city land parcels worth 1,300 housing units which reached critical land release milestones in the first year of our Priority Programme for Accelerated Land Release. This is encouraging progress towards our goal of faster land release for more affordable housing in not only the inner-city, but close to important economic nodes across Cape Town, such as the critical Voortrekker road corridor which links Cape Town CBD with Bellville,” he says.
Some 6,500 city-wide social housing opportunities are in the pipeline.
James Vos, acting mayoral committee member for human settlements says the Cape Town city council’s approval of these properties has a desktop value of more than R25 million and aims to unlock the well-located sites for social housing in partnership with social housing institutions to the benefit of those earning below R22,000 in household income per month.
“These subsidised rental developments are attractive and add value to our neighbourhoods...
“Our priority is to make more well-located land parcels available for affordable housing opportunities, with the help of private sector and social housing agencies. Unlocking these prime pieces of land will also bring much needed construction jobs, residential opportunities for people in areas close to economic activity, and transport hubs. We want to enable decent affordable housing, but also ensure that our developments spark an economic flame of growth in our neighbourhoods and communities. We must use our land as a means to unlock social and economic prosperity.”
The City’s social housing projects follow all due process as well as public participation, he adds.
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