Rental housing policy and the role of the household rental sector: Evidence from South Africa

Accommodation and Tenuous Livelihoods in Johannesburg’s Inner City: the ‘Rooms’ and ‘Spaces’ Typologies

“…Importantly, Cadstedt (2010) highlights the main cause of insecurity for tenants (who are faced with regular rental payments) as well as landlords (subject to tenants with very insecure incomes) as being poverty. Most landlords across Africa, Asia and Latin America have no more than a couple of properties, and often live on the same property as their tenants (Rakodi, 1995;Watson & McCarthy, 1998). Despite the wide variations in tenure described above, obvious relationships of exploitation are not common (UN Habitat, 2003), with a number of studies reporting benign arrangements (Gilbert et al, 1997;Gordon & Nell, 2006;Kaitano, 2001), or even positive arrangements (Rakodi, 2002).…”

Inclusion Through Housing: Limitations and Alternatives in Johannesburg

“…I turn to these debates in the next section, to develop the argument that focus on home ownership in South Africa has had the effect of downplaying the critical importance of cheap rental accommodation for the very poor and role of the private sector in providing this. This builds on arguments made by a number of authors in recent years that rental accommodation is important in the South African context (see for example Gardner 2003;Sigodi Marah Martin and Matthew Nell and Associates 2002;Crankshaw et al 2000;Watson and McCarthy 1998). In addition, the paper motivates for access to basic services to be promoted in places beyond residential accommodation.…”

“…backyard shacks, informal settlements and partitioned warehouses). Rust (2006) notes that nearly a third of all South African households live in rental accommodation, much of it supplied by 'small scale landlords' or the 'household sector' (Watson and McCarthy 1998). Watson and McCarthy (1998: 54) have noted that formal endorsement of household rental could be seen as approval of 'a highly inadequate form of shelter'.…”

Backyard shacks: The relative success of this housing option in Port Elizabeth

“…Indeed, the national housing department seems to be reluctant to accept any form of informal housing, as this would contradict the promises made in the mid-1990s by the first ANC government to provide all of the poor with houses (Watson and McCarthy, 1998). However, informal rental has also been ignored because public authorities lack the technical and conceptual ability to support and promote this flexible market.…”