Inclusion of Co-operative Housing Approach to the Plethora of Policies and Legislation on Housing in South Africa

The major problem facing the South African government is the inability to increase the delivery of houses to the citizens amid fiscal constraint. To this end, a series of legislation and policies in housing have been put in place since the advent of democratic dispensation in 1994. If the approach of the government has shifted to demand driven, brought about by the needs of the beneficiaries, the question still remains why policies and legislation, such as the 2005 and 2009 Social Housing Policies and the Social Housing Act 16 of 2008 are antithetical to the co-operative housing subsector? It would have been expected that equal priorities and a level playing ground will be accorded to all the delivery options in order to have a rapid and efficient housing sector. The situation is however different due in part to the lack of awareness in terms of principles and processes involved in co-operative housing among both the public and government officials, thereby creating a huge gap in the rate at which the various delivery options have been providing houses. To this end, integration of relevant co-operative policies and legislation into the relevant housing policies and legislation is advocated in order to bridge the huge housing deficit.Key words: Co-operative housing; Housing deficit; Housing legislation; Housing policy