City promises first affordable housing in CBD since 1994

The project spans a six-hectare portion of land under and between the unfinished freeways on the northern edge of the central business district (CBD). Bids for the project must include an unspecified percentage of affordable housing, which can be built within the development, or somewhere else within the CBD.

Herron said the percentage was undefined as the city believed if developers are given a target percentage, only that amount of affordable housing would be created. Now, developers will have to compete on how much affordable housing they will deliver.

Affordable housing will be made available to households that make between R3,500 and R15,000 a month. There will be a split between rented and owned housing.

The prospectus for the project will be issued on 8 July and will be on display at the Civic Centre for three weeks for public participation, which the Bid Evaluation Committee must take into account.

There is no deadline for the completion of the project yet. Bids will be required to give a timeline.

Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) welcomed the announcement of the creation of affordable housing, since no affordable housing has been built since 1994.

However, NU remained skeptical about the amount of affordable housing and the accessibility to low-income families. Hopolang Selebalo, head of research at NU, wrote in a statement, “The city's commitment to undoing the spatial legacy of apartheid cannot be demonstrated in a piecemeal manner.”