Abstract
Throughout the world poor, low- and middle-income households are struggling to access affordable/low-cost housing. This has been exacerbated by the slow delivery of housing stock, its unaffordability, excessive house prices, and inadequate fiscally aligned housing subsidies; this has been the case in South Africa as well. Since the inception of democracy in 1994, the clamour has mounted for the delivery of sustainable low-cost housing and the opportunity for poor and ordinary South Africans to own adequate houses. However, since the introduction of low-cost housing in 1994 the government has been focusing on quantity, not quality, which has left many of these housing units, located at the periphery of urban areas, collapsing due to poor workmanship. Access to adequate affordable housing remains the biggest challenge for developed and developing countries throughout the world due to a number of factors. These include poverty, inequality, high unemployment rates, low level of education, low income rate, and slow growth of the economies in most of the regions. Low-cost housing backlogs and the rapid increase in demand for such housing remain a challenge for most countries, but especially for developing countries such as South Africa. Many employed people in the South African workforce find themselves being too well off to qualify for a subsidised housing unit and too poor to qualify for a mortgage bond from a private institution, and this has been the case for many people living in Diepsloot informal settlement.
D.Ing. (Engineering Management)