City’s Title Deeds Drive heads to Kuyasa

14 June 2023

The City’s Human Settlement’s Title Deeds Drive visited the residents of Kuyasa, Khayelitsha today, 14 June 2023. This is part of a roadshow to encourage beneficiaries of historic housing programmes, including the old RDP projects, to claim their title deeds. The City’s title deeds programme is building hope and is empowering residents as property owners.

The City kicked off its latest Title Deeds Drive this month where beneficiaries of housing opportunities are able to collect their title deeds from the City. The opportunities include serviced sites as well as Breaking New Ground homes, and some older projects where title deeds have never been collected including for the then 'RDP' homes. Tracing and tracking beneficiaries of older housing projects is a challenge as many are no longer living in Cape Town or there are no contact details available for them.

'It is very important for beneficiaries to come forward and to claim their title deeds as this will assist qualifying beneficiaries in formalising their ownership and will provide them with security of tenure. Since 2013, the City has delivered more than 12 000 historic title deeds to beneficiaries in a number of areas in the metro. As human settlements projects are completed, title deeds are handed over. However, the challenge is the projects that were completed 10 or 20 years ago where beneficiaries have not come forward and where these beneficiaries have changed their contact details or are no longer in Cape Town. The City calls on all residents who have not yet claimed their title deeds come forward and approach us for more information. We are also focusing our attention on areas outside of Cape Town in an effort to reach beneficiaries that no longer reside in the metro.

'We remain on course with positioning our human settlements programmes as catalysts for meaningful economic growth in our communities. It is also my personal commitment to unlock opportunities through our human settlements programmes. A title deed is so much more than just a piece of paper, it is a way of unlocking opportunities for families and their loved ones, and for future generations. Over the next few months, the City will be in a number of communities and we encourage residents to visit the title deeds initiative when it reaches their area,' said Alderman James Vos, the City's Acting Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.

R38 million programme to drive homeownership in the metro

This year, the City also launched its property home-ownership transfer at no cost programme. It will among others assist City-tenants become owners of their rental units and over the next three years, R38 million was set aside to drive the transfer of title deeds free of charge for qualifying beneficiaries.

Through the No Cost Transfer Programme, the City will fund the attorney transfer fees and fix same at R2 500 per property irrespective of the property purchase price, on behalf of the beneficiaries. The City will also fund insurance costs for saleable rental units from the date of sale until the registration of the property