2nd Community of Practice for Human Settlements Finance: Focus on impact of COVID

CAHF, the Cities Support Programme of National Treasury, and SALGA established a partnership in 2019 to host a regular platform to address issues of housing finance, spatial planning and housing development in cities. The purpose of the Community of Practice on Human Settlements Finance is to provide a knowledge-sharing platform for research on residential property markets and the built environment finance framework. The goal is to build capacity and strengthen municipal planning, budgeting and policy-making through peer learning initiatives.

Following the first COP held in Cape Town in November 2019, the second meeting of the COP was held 2 July 2020, as a virtual engagement. The meeting focused on the issues of human settlements finance in the new environment shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, and included the following presentations:

1. An overview of metro residential property markets, based on updated 2019 title deeds data – Kecia Rust (CAHF)
2. The potential impact of Covid-19 on municipal rates and service charges, including an analysis of the residential exclusion threshold using deeds data – Alison Tshangana (CAHF) and James Matsie (SALGA)
3. The preliminary analysis of financial impact of Covid-19 on metro water and sanitation budgets – Anthea Stephens (CSP)

Over 40 participants joined the online meeting, including metro officials, and representatives from National Treasury, the National Department of Human Settlements and NGOs. The presentations from the sessions can be downloaded below. A recording of the session is available here.