The improved delivery of sustain- able human settlements through strengthened efforts and focusing on financing the affordable housing sector were the focal points of a discussion in Sandton earlier this month between Human Settlements Minister Connie September and representatives from the country’s major commercial banks.

The parties renewed their commitment to unlocking the housing challenges in the country.

“Human settlements are not only about houses. They include a range of other issues that require the participation of all stakeholders that have a role to play in the sector. Government has rolled out various programmes in housing and we acknowledge that we are not the only players in the housing sector,” September said.

She added that many meetings had been held between the Department of Human Settle-ments, its development finance institution, the Banking Associ-ation of South Africa and the major banks in South Africa.

At the discussion, the parties acknowledged their contributions and common objectives and agreed that a collaborative effort was required to implement the National Development Plan (NDP) and deal with the shared challenges in the spatial development landscape.

Banking Association of South Africa MD Cas Coovadia acknowledged that there were major housing issues and added that an implementation team, comprising members of the public and private sectors had been established to investigate the short-, medium- and long-term issues.

“We welcome the meeting with the department and are committed to working towards dealing with the housing challenges. We urged other government departments to get involved and have identified four areas in the NDP on which we will focus,” he revealed.

Existing government channels, such as the Financed Linked Subsidy Programme, policy and regulatory framework, the agreement on the modalities of the mortgage default insurance, rental housing issues and land availability, the spatial development framework and the environment in which human settlements operate, would also enjoy focus.

“Over the next five years, the department plans to provide more than a million housing opportunities for the poor, provide basic services for informal communities and address the backlogs in sanitation. A critical objective of the department is to revitalise the housing market and to crowd in sizable volumes of private capital to support the affordable housing market,” September stated.

She noted that there would be additional dialogues with other organs of State for their participation.