Cape Town – The Cape Town City Council on Thursday announced that it was set to release land for the largest-ever social housing development in the inner-city.
In an address to Council, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the City’s Pickwick property will deliver 1 800 units in the inner city suburb of Salt River.
Mayor Hill-Lewis said the development would include 840 social rental units for families earning less than R22 000 per month.
There will be on-site amenities including a crèche, playgrounds, clubhouse, and swimming pool.
“Today is an important day for the delivery of our pledge of more affordable housing in Cape Town, as Council approves the final release of the Pickwick Road site to a social housing developer,” said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
“With its prime location in Salt River just minutes away from the work opportunities of the CBD, public transport, and major access roads, this 3.2-hectare site has everything we are looking for when it comes to land suitable for social housing development.”
Mayor Hill-Lewis said the development will yield around 1 800 residential opportunities, including 840 social housing units and 960 open market units, as part of a mixed-use development.
“This is up from the forecasted 600 social housing units, and we are pleased that our newly adopted land release guidelines are maximising social housing yield, as intended,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
“These affordable rentals are an absolute game changer for families with a combined monthly income of less than R22 000, and I am truly excited about this land being turned into beautiful, affordable homes for thousands of Capetonians,” said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
“Pickwick is the latest land release under our Mayoral Priority Programme, which has now seen various approval and release milestones reached in the past year for more than 2 200 social housing units across seven land parcels, mostly in Cape Town’s inner city”.
Councillor Carl Pophaim, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, said the City has over 6 500 social housing units in the pipeline across 50 land parcels city-wide.
“We’re about to start tenanting at the 1 000-unit Goodwood Station social housing project, where the City provided development grant funding, land for parking, and various incentives to enable this development,” said Councillor Pophaim.
“This follows the tenanting recently of our 204-unit Maitland Mews social housing development in central Cape Town.
Councillor Pophaim added: “Besides our own land release programme, we have also helped enable 11 00 social housing units in the well-located city suburb of Pinelands, for phase one of the Western Cape Government’s Conradie Park development.
“We are providing very significant financial support at another province precinct, at Founder’s Garden in the CBD.”
