Joburg plans to ease housing crisis with mega projects and acquisitions

Lack of housing has remained a major issue for government with over 1.3 million Gauteng residents on the provincial housing waiting list.

Now the City of Joburg MMC for human settlements Mlungisi Mabaso is bullish about a plan to offer accommodation to all deserving residents.

He said government’s mixed housing plan in Johannesburg would, in the 2024-25 financial year, cover needs of residents from lowest earners to the unemployed residing in the city.

Mixed housing plan in Joburg

In a written reply to the Gauteng legislature on the state of housing in the province, human settlements MEC Tasneem Motara said there were 1.3 million potential beneficiaries registered on the housing waiting list.

While Johannesburg has an estimated housing backlog of about 500 000, Mabaso said he was confident about the city’s plan making a dent in addressing the crisis.

The plan included mandating the Johannesburg Property Company to acquire unused buildings in the city – when resources become available – to deliver affordable housing units.

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A phased upgrade of 67 informal settlements is underway in the south of Johannesburg to turn them into formal housing, through offering serviced stands, construction of access roads and providing basic services like water, electricity and sanitation, giving residents an opportunity to build their own houses.

The integration of Meadowlands Hostel in Soweto is being completed to turn it into the Fleurhof mega-project – to yield an additional 7 000 housing opportunities by next year.

“We are confident about effectively dealing with priorities in the department of human settlements in this current financial year, which include addressing the issue of backlogs – delivering more houses to the people in need. With Southern Farm coming up, we have mega-housing projects in Johannesburg – putting more resources in Lufhereng.

Mega projects

“Acquiring buildings in the inner city for affordable housing and an expansion of Fleurhof are among key priorities we want to achieve. I believe these projects will go a long way in addressing backlogs,” said Mabaso.

Southern Farm is a R27 billion biodiversity low-cost development launched in Devland.

Also underway is the Lufhereng mega-housing project on 2 000-hectares of land, secured by the City of Joburg for the western expansion of Soweto.

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The project is set to accommodate over 30 000 households in a wide variety of housing typologies and land tenure options.

Said Mabaso: “In line with our upgrading plan, we have informal settlements earmarked in this financial year, which include services like water and lights.

“We will be providing people in informal settlements and mega-projects with service stands, which are vacant land. We are introducing the hostel developments programme.

Hostel developments programme

“We are introducing a redevelopment programme in the City of Joburg and in Midrand and pushing more resources into megaprojects – as part of the broader Gauteng development.

“We are talking 3 000 housing opportunities.”