Infrastructure
(1) What (a) is the total number of rental units that his Department owns, (b) are the (i) details and (ii) monthly rental of each unit, (c) is the total number of government officials who are on the waiting list for the allocated houses from the government rental stock and (d)(i) is the total number of government rental units that are vacant and (ii) are reasons therefor;
(2) what is the total revenue that his Department has generated from its rental units per year in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022, (v) 2023 and (vi) 2024 to date?
- (a) There is currently a total of 606 rental units.
- (i) and (ii). The detailed information required cannot be provided due to the provisions of the POPIA Act. The monthly average rental for government workers is R3 200 and for general tenants it is R807. Historically, the monthly rentals charged were very low and a new allocations framework was introduced to ensure that monthly rentals reflect cost recovery to ensure sustainable rental property management.
- The former Department of Human Settlements introduced a waiting list for government officials in 2016 where a specific number of officials were recorded. Allocations were made from either the “government officials list” or the City of Cape Town Housing Needs Database. The “government officials list” is now exhausted, and applicants are sourced only from the municipal list. Currently there is no separate waiting list for government officials.
- (i) A total of 28 rental units are vacant.
(ii) when units become vacant, requests are forwarded to the City Of Cape Town for the next available applicant from their Housing Needs Database. Applications received from the City of Cape Town undergo an internal vetting process. However, these applications still do not meet the Departmental criteria. The Department therefore developed a set of criteria which includes the requirement of meeting the economic recovery rental to ensure that tenants can afford the rental payments. Most applicants fall below this threshold.
- The table below lists the total revenue generated per year.
Total Revenue Generated by Listed Year | ||
Number | Year | Revenue |
(i) | 2019 | R 6 470 312.10 |
(ii) | 2020 | R 6 253 131.23 |
(iii) | 2021 | R 6 212 241.48 |
(iv) | 2022 | R 7 091 529.18 |
(v) | 2023 | R 6 811 660.84 |
(vi) | 2024 | R 4 826 249.88 to date |
Total | R 37 665 124.71 | |
