Housing in Southern Africa March 2015

Housing

R28 bn greenfields mega project B asil Read together with the Housing Impact Fund of South Africa (HIFSA), a fundmanaged Savanna City situated south of Johannesburg’s CBD in the Midvaal Local Municipality will provide over 18 399 affordable housing, retail and commercial opportunities, schools, parks, recreational facilities,

by Old Mutual, will be working with the national and provincial Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and the Midvaal Local Municipality the Emfuleni Local Municipality and Sedibeng District Municipality, to ensure that the development sets a new benchmark in economic devel- opment and housing. Savanna City is South Africa's largest privately initiated mixed-use housing development and the key stakeholders in theHIFSA includes the Development Bankof SouthernAfrica, Eskom, the Government Employees Pension Fund and Old Mutual. The R28 billion greenfields mega project will roll out over a ten year period and the 1 462 ha site will provide a mix of residential housing opportunities, whichwill include 2 635 walk-up units, 10 246 Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Program (FLISP), fully bonded, as well as 5 517 fully subsidised units Affordable housing developer Cos- mopolitan has been selected to roll out 10 246 FLISPunits andwill oversee the construction, marketing and sell- ing of the units at Savanna City. The Midvaal project will benefit from the lessons that were learned at Cosmo City, the multi-billion pilot project north of Johannesburg, which Basil Read rolled out on behalf of national, provincial and local govern- ment. Cosmo City is often cited as

and a 400 ha environmental area . the ‘blueprint’ for integrated mixed residential settlements, and now Savanna City will lift the benchmark even further. Savanna City will provide 54 900 employment opportunities during the construction period and 12 700 permanent jobs on completion. The development includes 400haof public open space, 16 schools, 32 institution- al sites, healthcare facilities, churches, recreational and social sites and nine commercial and retail opportunities. Services and facilities are easily ac- cessible and within walking distance. A north/south spine road links all the economic and social facilities on the same route. Transport nodes include direct access links to the Stredford Train Station and Orange Farm. The Eyethu Mall, a 30 000m² retail shopping centre is 3km fromSavanna City and this will also boost the local economy and provide work oppor- tunities. Cosmopolitan hosted all themajor financial institutions, development finance institutionsandkey stakehold- ers at the show village in November 2014. It is clear that the public and Midvaal community are extremely excited about Savanna City and the initial 164 FLISP units were sold prior to the launch.

Construction will begin on the fully bonded units by mid-year and oc- cupation will take place fromAugust. Cosmopolitan aim to have the first 500 units sold before December 2015. The Director-General of Human Settlements, Thabane Zulu officially launched the National Human Settle- ments Youth Brigade Program at Savanna City last December. The Youth Brigade Program will train youth teams in construction and the engineering sector. This pilot project includes theoretical trainingwithBasil Read and practical training on site with the youth teams joining Cosmo- politan and Basil Read’s construction teams for experience. SavannaCity’s first corporate social initiative was a park, designed and built by members of the local com- munity and handed over to Mayor Bongani Baloyi from the Midvaal Lo- cal Municipality. The park has been named Bapala. Children from the Lakeside Primary School inspired the design for the park and the artwork and imagery of a dream park is in line with Savanna City’s vision. Savanna City has been identified as a government prioritymegaproject and will play a critical contribution in achieving its housing targets over the next five years. ■

March 2015