Bay plan for affordable housing

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is on a mission to provide affordable housing to residents who don’t qualify for an RDP house or home loan.

Human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga said the city was looking into ways to provide housing to teachers, nurses and civil servants who struggled to get loans and were not eligible for an RDP house.

Bhanga made the announcement at a human settlements standing committee meeting yesterday following a presentation by the HLFA Credit Corporation at the Uitenhage Town Hall.

The municipality is looking to address the “missing middle” through housing projects specifically designed for low-income earners.

The corporation was presenting its plan for mixed use development in Nelson Mandela Bay.

HLFA founder Vivi Gusha proposed the municipality endorsed the programme by making land available for middle income earners.

“We request the availability for us to do this development and identify role players and we would provide funding for qualifying end users.”

Gusha said the municipality would be the landowner and the corporation would manage it. The project has already been piloted in Cape Town, where Gusha said only 10% of people qualified for bond finance.

“We offer mortgage home loans ranging from R10 000 to R500 000,” Gush said.

Bhanga said they were looking at the idea but would consider other companies as well to provide the service.