The Development Action Group (DAG), the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the National Association of Social Housing Organisations (NASHO) have collaborated to publish research that demystifies the complex process of releasing municipal land for affordable housing.
The report focuses on case studies of four metropolitan municipalities—Cape Town, eThekwini (Durban), Johannesburg and Tshwane (Pretoria), documenting their experiences of disposing land for affordable housing.
“The public sector owns a sizeable amount of vacant and underused land, some of which is in well-located parts of cities with good access to economic opportunities and social amenities.
A valuable resource that could support urban inclusion and improve people’s life chances, this land, if released for decent affordable housing, would help address the chronic shortage of such accommodation in desirable locations and thus help to counteract the typically exclusionary character of the property market.
However, disposing of surplus public land is not as simple as putting it on the market and selling it to a suitable developer. Numerous legal, financial, administrative, political hurdles, and complications are involved. If the correct procedures are not followed—or take too long— the land may never get to the point of sale or may be sold but never actually developed.
History is littered with examples of government properties that were sold but remained idle due to procedural errors or excessive delays that ultimately killed the viability of planned projects. Opaque rules and excessive red tape have also prompted many developers to disengage from projects that require them to go through public land release processes.
Requiring knowledge, leadership, and coordination, disposing of surplus public property is akin to navigating a minefield of regulatory, technical, and bureaucratic obstacles.
First, government must be equipped with considerable knowledge, professional capabilities, and robust administrative systems. Second, political leaders must understand and appreciate the role that well-located land can play in social inclusion and urban integration so they can effectively counter the ambivalence and resistance that will invariably surface. Finally, throughout the land release process, different government departments—from the custodians of public property to the municipal units responsible for land-use planning and regulation to those responsible for housing and human settlements—must be willing and able to coordinate efforts.
More specifically, officials must understand the complex legal environment regulating the sale of public assets and develop appropriate systems and procedures to comply. They need to make full use of their discretion and delegated powers to be as responsive and nimble as possible without cutting corners. They also need expertise in various technical aspects of land and property development, including ensuring that the sites identified for affordable housing are indeed suitable for this purpose, that adequate demand exists, and that the land is ‘shovel-ready’ when released for development. In other words, officials must do everything possible to ensure that land identified for release is prepared with sufficient infrastructure and development rights in place to reduce the risks for developers.”
Professor Ivan Turok
