Infrastructure
Whether he had previously indicated that construction of the housing development on the parcels of land acquired in Hout Bay through the Housing Development Agency was expected to commence in April 2023; if so, why has construction not yet commenced?
Due to ongoing funding challenges within the Department, and in-year budget cuts being implemented by the National Department of Human Settlements, the Department is forced to review budgets and prioritise projects that are implementation ready and have existing contractual commitments. This is further exacerbated by the limited internal professional capacity to undertake and oversee new human settlement projects.
The Hout Bay project requires significant site enablement processes before it will be implementation ready, which includes various statutory processes and authorisations required in terms of the Land Use Planning Act and the National Environmental Management Act. In addition, the very nature of the site’s locality requires significant consideration of the most appropriate development to be undertaken. A typical, grant funded human settlement development is deemed to be an inappropriate development, without consideration of mixed use, mixed income opportunities, supported by private investment. To this end, the project has been handed over to the Department’s Economic Development Hub to conceptualise and package the project to maximise the opportunities that this strategic location involves.
Planning and site enablement is finally now underway as per the previous response provided in April 2026.
