Presentation: Analysing the Economic Impact of South Africa's Subsidy Housing Instruments

As part of our Housing and the Economy series, CAHF undertook a focused analysis of the economic impact of South Africa’s government subsidised housing programme in 2019. The report, written by David Gardner, Keith Lockwood and Jacus Pienaar, used CAHF’s housing cost benchmarking and housing economic value chain analysis frameworks to quantify the impact of South Africa’s housing subsidy system on the national economy. This presentation, made at a session at the National Treasury in March 2020, summarises the findings of that report.

The analysis highlights the massive contribution of South Africa’s subsidised housing programme to the country’s economy, at the same time that it works to fulfil the constitutionally enshrined right of all South African households to progressively realise access to decent accommodation. Subsidised housing contributed an estimated 50 percent to the economic impact of South Africa’s entire housing construction output in 2017, playing an important role in stabilising a shrinking construction sector. Subsidised housing directly accounts for half a percent of GDP. The analysis thus provides evidence that the subsidised housing programme provides a relatively consistent investment into South Africa’s construction sector, and as a consequence provides a level of intermediate input stability to the country’s secondary and tertiary sectors too.