Construction of 3 200 new housing units forming the largest integrated development scheme in the Western Cape is set to get under way in November.
The R500 million Pelican Park integrated housing project will be spread over 80 hectares between Strandfontein Road and Zeekoevlei over the next five years, and will feature different housing options for residents, depending on their income levels.
“We’re proud to launch this project as one of the City of Cape Town’s first integrated developments that crosses different ranges of affordability. We’re glad to be part of this historic project,” said Cllr Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.
The City of Cape Town signed a turnkey development agreement with Power Construction in January. Since then, the Power professional team have been designing and getting planning approvals for the final details, which were finally granted on 5 September 2012.
State funding for bulk services, roads, municipal services, public lighting and the subsidy houses themselves amounts to R224 million.
The new development will be split into three categories of housing: On The Vlei, which are houses for the open market; New Horizons, which are aimed at providing houses to first time buyers; and Pelican Park, the subsidy housing component. A new shopping centre will be constructed as part of the development, which also includes sites for two schools, and a regional clinic that will be run by City Health.
A show village, giving an indication of the range of houses available, will be on view from 13 October 2012.
A total of 2 100 state subsidised homes will be built, making a dent in the City’s housing waiting list, which is currently sitting with 350 000 names on it.
The first phase of construction includes 530 subsidy houses and 332 “GAP houses”, which will be sold at prices starting from R290 000, making these houses affordable to buyers who earn about R9 000 per month. The subsidy and GAP house will be built in single and double storey, semidetached and row house configurations.
This integrated development also includes 360 houses that will be priced from R480 000.
There will also be 63 double-storey “house shop” homes for R288 000, the ground floor of which can be used to run a small business.
The beneficiaries have been drawn from the City’s housing waiting list, with 60% from the nearby area and the remainder from outside the Subcouncil area.
The Pelican Park area was acquired by the government in the 1980s for housing, but development was prevented due to a lack of funding. Biodiversity and ecological concerns relating to the sensitive Dune Strandveld system were addressed in an Environmental Impact Assessment process, which determined where houses could be built and what part of the area had to be conserved.
All of the houses will also be energy efficient, with adequate ceiling insulation, solar water heating systems, and windows that are shaded at mid-summer.
Apart from the Pelican Park development, the City has also signed partnership agreements with other social housing partners in order to address the housing shortfall.
“In order to ensure that we provide fully subsidised housing to those who are in desperate need of such assistance – the poor and the vulnerable – we have a responsibility to ensure that those who can afford access to social housing are given the chance to do so. This in turn reduces the pressure on the City to provide fully subsidised housing opportunities,” said Executive Mayor Alderman Patricia de Lille.
