Financed homeownership and the economic downturn in South Africa

Citizens in the middle class: The interstitial policy spaces of South Africa's housing gap

“…At the same time, South Africa's formal housing market has boomed, with house prices rising by an average of 20% per year from 2000 to 2007 (with a major 2008-2009 dip in property prices and number of sales following the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2009 recession), stabilising at just under 10% per year since 2013 (Absa House Price Indices, 2014). Between these two trends, a housing affordability gap has emerged and expanded, representing those on the "edges" of accessing homeownership via either public or private measures (Marais and Cloete 2015). 3 Although technically white South Africans are also eligible for these housing schemes, in reality, few would meet the financial criteria.…”

“…Notwithstanding these limitations, it is estimated that approximately 25% of South Africa's population fall into this gap bracket (Rust, 2012b), 7 estimated to comprise 2.7 million urban households (Cirolia, forthcoming), ranging from key public and private sector workers such as teachers, government employees, nurses and police officers, to manual workers such as maids, drivers and factory workers. Over the past decade, the South African state has provided various financial incentives designed to pressure the private sector, particularly banks and developers, to provide loans and construct houses targeting the gap market (Marais and Cloete 2015). Essentially, the state has promoted a private-sector-driven approach, with the onus on banks and developers to finance housing projects (with minimal state support), and for the private sector to engage directly with gap households.…”

“…The widespread provision of statesubsidised housing for the very poor has not driven local economic growth in South Africa in the same way that social housing in other countries has had a stimulating effect (Gunter and Manuel 2016), 8 and consequently there is a clear desire for the state to limit the proportion of society heavily reliant on its services to meet their basic needs. The state's conceptualisation of gap housing policy is explicitly about expanding South Africa's bank-financed (rather than state-subsidised) home-owning class, and there is an implicit assumption that banks should support this as part of their redemption for redlining former black townships (Marais and Cloete 2015). Although issues of class are not explicitly discussed within the gap housing agenda, the state's ideal of private-sector-driven homeownership implicitly promotes a normative middle-class narrative of nuclear family financial independence.…”

“…This paper therefore uses housing policy as a lens through which to identify and explore the positionality and policy consequences of being a 'middle' citizen, neither affluent nor poor. Housing in South Africa provides a particularly pertinent lens through which to explore the notion of a 'middle' demographic because the post-apartheid state has prioritised housing as the primary means to overcome past inequalities (Marais and Cloete, 2015). More broadly, homeownership has been promoted round the globe as the means to tackle poverty and ensure capitalist asset accumulation for all income groups (based on neoliberal agendas, and most recently influenced by the pro-titling arguments of Hernando de Soto, 2000).…”

A Tale of Two Markets: Unequal Access to Private Property in a South African City

“…There is a growing, but still small, body of work being done on property and the housing market in South Africa (Saff ; Wood ; Lemon & Clifford ). The topics covered are the township housing market, the need to extend finance to this market, the Housing Subsidy Programme’s potential to create a secondary market and, more recently, problems and opportunities in middle‐income housing (Shisaka Development Management Services ; Tomlinson ; Lemanski , ; Marais & Cloete , ; Hoekstra & Marais ; Marais et al ). Taking a more positive view, the Centre for Affordable Housing in Africa () pointed out that property markets have been developing in many former Black townships of South Africa.…”