Census and recent Community Survey data highlights a significant shift in the way households are housed in South Africa. According to the 2001 Census, there were 7.7 million households who lived in housing that can be characterised as formal. By 2016 this had increased by over 5.7 million households to 13.4 million. To a large degree this was driven by the State’s extensive subsidy housing programme which provides a free house to beneficiaries earning less than R3,500 per month. While the massive increase in housing formalisation is noteworthy alone, perhaps what is more noteworthy is the level of housing investment that the Government housing subsidy has stimulated. One just needs to drive through areas such as Delft to see the very visible investment low-income households are making in their homes (many of which are RDP homes). Have a look at the clip to see some of the houses we recently captured.

There is also significant and visible housing investment in established townships like Soweto. The video below captures some of the houses we surveyed to better understand housing investment in the neighbourhood.