Cape Town housing activists sa

Photo: GroundUp

Cape Town housing activists say property market is a form of ‘contemporary apartheid’

Rising costs are driving poorer residents out of CPT

Cape Town housing activists sa

Photo: GroundUp

Housing activists Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) have called out the city of Cape Town for encouraging the rapid displacement of its poorer inhabitants, in a report published this week.

The group claim that the spiralling rent and property costs are causing poverty-stricken families to be relocated against their will, just like apartheid spatial planning.

This report highlights how rapid gentrification is creating a vicious cycle: When residents cannot afford the increasing rentals, they are sent to one of the city’s relocation camps like Wolwerivier or Blikkiesdorp, which are far away from the CBD.

Families and providers then have to spend more on travel to work, making their situation even more desperate and driving youths – with fewer opportunities for education and employment – to gang culture.

Read: Think tank urges Cape Town to end its housing apartheid

According to NU, they have been completely betrayed by regional authorities and government:

“Evictions and Displacement are primarily driven by a property price bubble and hikes in rent. This is compounded by a poor supply of affordable housing in the private sector and the utter failure of all three spheres of government to build well-located affordable housing. Relocation camps entrench apartheid spatial planning and are the contemporary equivalent to forced-removals.”

The activists are proposing that abandoned buildings (old hospitals, disused spaces) are used as temporary living spaces for citizens being outmuscled by big business.

The facts of the matter:

. According to NU, only 13% of home buyers in Cape Town are first time buyers. Many buyers are scooping up properties only to leave them empty to sell at a profit later, or as second or third homes for retirement, or as AirBnB rentals.
. Despite Cape Town homes having the highest average sale price in SA, prices are increasing year-on-year beyond inflation.
. In 2016, Cape Town had the third-highest year-on-year property inflation in the world at 16.1%, beaten only by Vancouver and Shanghai.
. The average household income in CPT is about R13,000 p/m, allowing a family to qualify for a home loan of roughly R336,000. The average home in the city costs just over R1 million. In order to afford a home, a resident must earn 3 times the average income.

Read: Housing activists have occupied a disused building in Cape Town for more than a month

The Western Cape High Court is currently mulling an application on behalf of the community of a row of houses in Bromwell Street, Woodstock, which was sold for redevelopment.