Johannesburg – The recession took a toll on home ownership in South Africa last year, with the percentage of households that own their homes falling to 56%, after rising from 53.1% in 2002 to 57.8% in 2007, according to Statistics SA.

Stats SA on Thursday released its General Household Survey (GHS) for 2009, a survey which has been conducted annually since 2002 and was undertaken in June last year. The GHS covers six broad areas: education, health, social development, housing, household access to services and facilities, food security and agriculture.

The percentage of home ownership refers to those households who are living in formal dwellings, and doesn’t include informal settlements, so the figure is strictly speaking not a reference to the proportion of households living in their own homes. Stats SA said the decrease in the proportion of home ownership between 2007 and 2009 was “most likely caused by the recession which impacted severely on households’ liquidity  during most of 2009″.

The GHS said that the North West province was the one showing the least progress in housing delivery, with the percentage of households that are shack dwellers soaring from 12.2% in 2002 to 21.5% in 2007. However, this situation improved again in 2009, with the proportion of shack dwellers falling to 16%, but Stats SA noted this was still above 2002 levels. 

At the time of the survey, 12.8% of South Africans were living in ‘RDP’ or state subsidised households.

On refuse removal, there was a drastic decrease in the proportion of households that used the disposal services of their municipalities, to 53.1% – below the 2002 level of 57.8% that prevailed when the survey was first launched. In Limpopo it is the worst, at only 12.8% of households having their refuse removed by municipalities. 

When it comes to access to water, the situation in the Eastern Cape is dire. The GHS says only 75% of households in the Eastern Cape have access to piped water. However, though still bad, the situation has improved significantly since 2002, when only 56.8% of Eastern Cape households had access. Nationally, even though there have been annual fluctuations, the percentage of households who receive piped water supplies from their local municipalities increased from 78.2% in 2004 to 83.3% in 2009.

Stats SA said “a large proportion” (58%) of the users of water said the quality of related services they received was good. However, there has been a steady decline in levels of satisfaction since 2005 and 2007, when the percentage of users who rated the services as good were 76.3% and 72% respectively.

The percentage of users who rated water services as average rather than good, increased from 15.8% in 2005 to 31.9% in 2009.

The GHS said: “In spite of the resolution to eradicate the use of bucket toilets, it has been found that as soon as bucket toilets were eliminated in a community other newly formed communities started using it for lack of alternatives.”

Nationwide, the percentage of households with no toilets or bucket toilets decreased from 12.6% in 2002 to 6.6% in 2009. The province with the highest proportion of no toilet facilities and/or bucket users is the Eastern Cape, at 18.9% of households.

The proportion of households connected to the main electricity supply continued its sharp upward trend, according to the survey. It rose from 76.8% in 2002 to 82.6% in 2009. However, connectivity actually decreased in the Western Cape and Limpopo between 2007 and 2009. – Fin24

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Johannesburg – Not only are house prices improving every month; the numbers of houses sold and home loans approved are steadily rising.

New statistics from banks, estate agents, mortgage originators and house-price indices showed the housing market has begun to feel the positive effect of the five-percentage-point interest-rate decline since December last year.

The relaxation of banks’ lending criteria, which means that 100% home loans are again available, is also giving momentum to the demand for accommodation.
Luthando Vutula, the managing executive of Absa Home Loans, said there is no doubt that the housing market is resurrecting.

“From August to September the number of applications for Absa home loans increased by 18%.” He said house prices reached at auctions are also 10% to 15% up.

Rudi Botha, said the number of home loans approved between August and September rose by 50%.

Adrian Goslett, assistant registrar of Re/Max Southern Africa, said September was the group’s best sales month this year, with property sales totalling just under R900m.

He believed the market is well on the way to recovery because consumer sentiment has dramatically improved. “Those wanting to buy a house should consider it now; interest rates are lower and finance more readily available.”

Coastal areas

Coastal areas, which were heavily impacted by the downturn in the housing market, are also seeing a revival.

The Eastern Cape office of Pam Golding Estates (PGE) in St Francis Bay notched up R35m in sales between June and September, the highest quarter in recent years. “This is double the sales turnover of the corresponding period last year,” reported Richard Arderne, PGE’s area principal.

On the house-price front a noticeable increase is evident in the different indices. First National Bank’s house-price index showed an annual decline of 4.4% in September, considerably better than the revised 6.5% for August. At this rate the decline in house prices should be over by early next year.

Lightstone’s house-price index indicated prices rose for the fifth successive month in May. Nominal house prices were 0.15% better in May than in April, although they were still 1.1% lower than in May last year.

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