The City’s housing programmes are informed by its spatial development planning frameworks and are aligned to those of National Government. Most of them are run via partnerships between the City, other arms of government and civic organisations.

They include:

Gap housing
This programme, which is implemented by private developers, caters for families earning between R 3 500 and R 10 000 per month. Click here for more details.

Community residential units
The Community Residential Units (CRU) Programme is used to build new rental stock (including hostels) and upgrade existing higher density stock. Click here for more details.

Social housing programme
The Social Housing Programme provides rental units via agreements with Communicare, the Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) and the Social Housing Development Company (SOHCO) to families who earn less than R3 500 per month. Click here for more details.

Indigent grant
Any City tenant or homeowner whose household income is less than R3 000 per month can apply for an indigent grant to help with their rental and bond payments.

Individual housing subsidies
This credit and non-credit linked financial intervention programme caters for people who earn R0 - R3 500 per month.

Enhanced extended discount benefit scheme
The Enhanced Extended Discount Benefit Scheme (EEDBS) is a financial instrument aimed at helping tenants buy their rental units (if and when they are declared saleable). It also helps sales debtors settle the amount they owe on their properties (provided these have been acquired before 1994).

• Enhanced Peoples’ Housing Process
• Informal Settlement Upgrade Programme
• Consolidation subsidies

Breaking New Ground houses
The City is working towards the goal of supplying a minimum of a 40m² RDP (a subsidised house built between 1994 and pre-September 2004) or BNG house (a house built according to the BNG policy in the post September 2004 period) to waiting list families, who earn a combined income of R0 - R 3 500 per month (with the subsidy amount provided by the National Housing Department). Beneficiaries must be on the City’s waiting list and meet the requirements prescribed in the National Housing Code.

People’s housing programme
This programme applies to households that wish to maximise their housing subsidy by building or organising the building of their homes themselves. Beneficiaries can apply for subsidies via the project-linked instrument (the subsidy granted to qualifying beneficiaries to enable to them to acquire a house as part of an approved project), the consolidation instrument (the subsidy granted to owners of a serviced site for the construction of a house) or the institutional subsidy (the subsidy that is available to institutions to enable them to crate affordable housing stock on a deed of sale, rental or rent to buy option). Beneficiaries must comply with prescribed policy criteria and are exempted from contributing R2 479 towards the product cost.

Emergency housing programme
This programme supplies temporary assistance to victims of housing related disasters (such as fire and flood damage), and includes the provision of Temporary Resettlement Areas (TRA). Minimum services are provided, along with basic shelters.

Upgrading of informal settlements programme
This programme provides (1) basic services (water, standpipes and toilet facilities) (2) permanent services and (3) houses to existing informal settlements wherever possible on a progressive and in situ basis. This programme is aimed at permanent areas, and does not apply to temporary settlements.

Institutional housing subsidy programme
This programme targets housing institutions that provide tenure alternatives to immediate ownership. Such institutions provide rented premises with an option to buy after a certain period

Enhanced extended discount benefit scheme
This programme allows for the discounting of an amount up to the prevailing housing subsidy on the loan, purchase price or purchase balance so that people can buy their State-financed property (which must have been occupied before 1 July 1993). The programme applies to stands contracted by 30 June 1993 and allocated to individuals by 15 March 1994.

Financed linked individual subsidy programme
The Financed Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) programme applies to people who earn R 3 501 and R 7 000 per month. These people may apply for a subsidy, which is determined by an increment band.