The finance linked individual subsidy programme: A housing policy assessment

Since 1994, the democratic government has put various legislative measures in place to address the spatial legacies of apartheid and manifest the right to access adequate housing, which was denied to many South Africans. Twenty-seven years post-democracy, South Africa is still faced with glaring spatial inequalities, with many South Africans condemned to squalid and inadequate residential conditions. The need for housing continued outweigh what government can supply, thus making the right to access adequate housing an impossible dream for many. Some of the factors that have contributed to increased housing demand are urbanisation, migration and population growth. While democracy has introduced economic opportunities that have improved the lives of many South Africans who were once side-lined and discriminated against, South Africa remains racially polarised, with a widening gap between rich and poor. An increasing majority of South Africa falls in a low-middle income category, which is sometimes considered the middle class. In the context of housing, the middle class is characterised by people who are too rich to qualify for free government subsidised housing yet too poor to access housing finance from mainstream mortgage lendersThesis (MA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic science, 202