The City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government, and property management company Garden Cities today, 17 March 2016, handed over the first four completed units of what is regarded as a catalytic human settlements project for the Fisantekraal area, near Durbanville.
The first phase of this approximately R294 million project, which is built on a public and private sector partnership, comprises 868 subsidized housing units. It is earmarked for completion by the end of 2017.
To date, 38 units have been completed.
“This is such a wonderful day for these beneficiaries, for the City and its partners. We believe that this project will be a catalyst for improving the lives of our most vulnerable residents”.
“A truly integrated, sustainable human settlement is being constructed, with all social, economic and transport amenities. This project is an example of how the City wishes to manage its residential developments going forward by locating future residential areas for all income groups in relation to economic and work opportunities”.
“The housing need is acute and, coupled with the highest urbanization rate in the country, the City needs to bring in private and civic parties to enable us to drive large-scale human settlements developments. A situation where government alone is the key driver of subsidized housing opportunities is simply unsustainable”.
“We are moving towards a new delivery model. The Greenville Garden Cities development is in line with our densification policy and our transport-oriented development and integrated human settlements frameworks which is, among others, based strongly on partnerships and innovative solutions to mitigate the challenges resulting from increased urbanization,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Benedicta van Minnen.
The City and the WCG are the funders of the infrastructure and top structures and have also provided the planning, design and implementation input, standards, specification and approvals for the development.
Garden Cities provided the land and is the developer through a project team of built environment professionals including facilitation, financial and legal support. The City and WCG officials continue to be part of the project led by Garden Cities.
The allocation of houses for the project has been done in strict accordance to the City’s Allocation Policy.
