Paarl, Wellington, Mbekweni area housing market study

Developed in 2021, the draft Western Cape Inclusionary Housing Policy Framework provides a guide for municipalities to develop local policies which harness inclusionary housing as a mechanism to promote better located affordable housing in towns and cities, in partnership with the private sector. As a first step to determining if inclusionary housing has the potential to be an effective policy tool in the local municipal context, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the residential property market in the municipality. Given that many local governments do not have the means to undertake this detailed analysis themselves, the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) in partnership with the Department of Human Settlements appointed CAHF to deliver housing market studies for identified urban areas of George, Stellenbosch, Mossel Bay and Drakenstein municipalities.

This report is therefore an analysis of the Paarl, Wellington and Mbekweni area residential property market including; housing supply and demand assessments; and analysis of the affordability gap, and is intended to provide the intelligence needed to ensure an evidence-led understanding of the housing market. The demand and supply side assessments of the residential property market in Paarl/Wellington point to an undersupply of entry level and affordable housing, in relation to the number of households in the lower income brackets. The data presented in this report suggests a possible oversupply of luxury properties over R1.2 million, but the evidence on the ground, supported by development applications, is that the appetite of the private sector to construct new residential developments is not abating, despite some of the challenges experienced by developers.