A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / In South Africa, there is a group of families that live in small four-room houses that were transferred to them by the apartheid regime in 1978. As elsewhere in the developing world, many of these families are extended families which live together because they do not have any other options.
This study explores the housing needs and living conditions of the Ndala family and three other extended families living in or near Pimville, Soweto. Structured interviews, observations and evaluation research are utilised to determine the extent to which poor extended families in South Africa are excluded from housing finance. Literature discussing self-help housing, livelihoods, poverty and enablement is presented in order to construct a theoretical framework, after which an overview of housing finance arrangements in the developed world, developing countries and South Africa in particular provides the backdrop against which the findings are discussed.
The findings and analysis demonstrate that extended families such as those included in the study fall into a gap in the provisioning of housing finance in South Africa. They do not qualify for government housing assistance, and they also cannot obtain loan finance from banks because they do not meet the strict lending criteria. As a result, the extended families turn to non-conventional sources of income and finance such as rental income, loans from relatives and stokvel funds in order to survive and in some cases extend their houses.
It is recommended at the end of the study that South Africa review its current housing policies. Specifically, the study recommends that a new strategy called “rent a room” be put into place in order to assist poor extended families like the Ndalas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15506 |
| Date | 10 September 2014 |
| Creators | Mbongwe, Lindiwe |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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