The Community Residential Units Programme supports the upgrading of government owned communal rental accommodation otherwise known as hostels. The CRU programme aims to facilitate the provision of secure, stable rental tenure for lower income persons/households. The housing stock funded by the CRU Programme should remain in public ownership and cannot be sold or transferred to individual residents.

Invites the support of public and private stakeholders to be in partnership with government in a spirit of increasing the speed of delivering houses.

There is an increasing need for affordable rental units which provide secure tenure to households which prefer the mobility provided by rental accommodation. Social housing provides good quality rental accommodation for the upper end of the low income market , with the primary objective of urban restructuring, creating sustainable human settlements.

The programme provides for grant funding to establish, capacitate and capitalize social housing institutions which may develop, hold and administer affordable rental units within identified restructuring zones.

The First Home Finance is a subsidy established by our government with the  aims  of provide the poor and the low to middle income households with access to adequate housing.

Qualifying households for this subsidy are those that in the gap market that is - those that do not qualify for a fully subsidised house and at the same time they do not qualify for mortgage loan from the banks. These are families earning between R3501.00 and R22000-00 per month.

Individuals who are unable to secure a mortgage loan may apply for the allocation of a vacant serviced stand.

The subsidy will be used to decrease the mortgage bond and is only applicable to persons who have never been assisted by the state. It will be disbursed as a once off subsidy towards the repayment of the bond. The subsidy attaches to the beneficiary and not to the property.

The subsidy may be used to

• To buy new or old residential property
• To buy a vacant serviced residential-stand, linked to an NHBRC registered homebuilder contract; or
• To build property on a self-owned serviced residential stand, through an NHBRC registered homebuilder

The programme facilitates the structured upgrading of informal settlements. It applies to in situ upgrading of informal settlements as well as where communities are to be relocated for a variety of reasons. The programme entails extensive community consultation and participation, emergency basic services provision, permanent services provision and security of tenure.

This programme, also known as the RDP programme, provides beneficiaries with a fully built house that is provided free of charge by the Government. However, beneficiaries of ‘RDP Houses’ are still required to pay for all municipal rates which may include water and electricity or other service surcharges.

The Enhanced People’s Housing Process aims to support household who wish to enhance their housing subsidies by building their own homes. The enhanced people’s Housing process can be accessed through the Integrated Residential Development Programme, Project Linked Consolidation, Institutional or Rural Subsidies as well as technical and other forms of assistance in the house building process.

This subsidy is given to people who want to build or manage the building of their own homes. Unlike the Project Linked Subsidy where a contractor builds houses for a number of people, the Peoples Housing Process allows people or beneficiaries to build or organise the building of their homes. People are in charge of their own house construction process in this programme and are supported by a support organisation. Additional funds are available to pay for the support functions.

The integrated residential Development Programme replaced the project linked Subsidy Programme. The programme provides for planning and development of integrated housing projects. Projects can be planned and developed in phases and provides for holistic development orientation.

Phase 1 Land, Services and Township Proclamation The first phase entails planning, land acquisition, township establishment and the provision of serviced residential and other land use stands to ensure a sustainable integrated community.

Phase 2; Housing Construction: Individual Ownership options The second phase comprises the house construction phase for qualifying housing subsidy beneficiaries and the sale of stands to non qualifying beneficiaries and to commercial interests etc.