Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies
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Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies Research Report on Deferred Ownership: Exploring possibilities for ownership opportunities in the gap market utilising early subsidies for properties sold by instalment sales or lease option March 2020 1 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Document title and version: Research Report on Deferred Ownership: Exploring possibilities for ownership opportunities in the gap market utilising early subsidies for properties sold by instalment sales or lease option Department: Western Cape Department of Human Settlements Authors: Policy and Research Directorate Date: March 2020 2 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies TABLE OF CONTENTS DEFINITION OF TERMS 6 ABBREVIATIONS 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 11 1 INTRODUCTION 18 2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 22 2.1 KEY RISKS AND CONSTRAINTS 26 2.1.1 Lease option 26 2.1.2 Instalment sales 27 2.2 EARLY SUBSIDIES AND/OR GOVERNMENT SUPPLY 30 2.3 NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGING RISKS 32 3 REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN SOUTH AFRICA 38 3.1 THE ALIENATION OF LAND ACT 68 OF 1981 39 3.2 NATIONAL CREDIT ACT 34 OF 2005 46 3.3 CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT 68 OF 2008 48 3.4 NATIONAL HOME BUILDERS REGISTRATION COUNCIL 50 3.5 OTHER REGULATION OR COMPLIANCE ISSUES 51 3.6 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF CURRENT REGULATIONS 52 4 CASE STUDIES 54 4.1 CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY 54 4.2 GOVERNMENT SUBSIDISED INSTALMENT SALES 59 4.2.1 Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) 59 4.3 PRIVATELY FUNDED INSTALMENT SALES 72 4.3.1 Chartwell housing finance solutions 72 4.3.2 Sentinel Homes 78 4.4 GOVERNMENT SUBSIDISED LEASE OPTIONS 84 4.4.1 Social Housing Company (SOHCO) Amalinda Village Project 84 4.4.2 Housing Association of Blaauwberg (HAB) 89 4.4.3 Amakhaya Ngoku 94 5 FINDINGS AND LESSONS 100 5.1 OVERALL PERFORMANCE 103 5.2 CAPITAL OUTCOMES FOR BENEFICIARIES 106 5.3 ASSESSING THE MANAGEMENT OF RISKS IN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES 108 5.3.1 Buyer risks 108 5.3.2 Seller risks 115 6 CONCLUSION: ANSWERING RESEARCH QUESTIONS & DEFINING THE EMERGING SUBSIDY FRAMEWORK 123 REFERENCES 130 3 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Information sources for the case studies 55 S Table 2: Key aspects of performance of CTCHC projects 61 Table 3: Monthly savings requirement compared to monthly instalment amount and unit price 63 Table 4: Recoverable amounts in Chartwell investment projects 75 Table 5: Funding sources for HAB project 89 Table 6: Cash flow of the project as given in project application documents for AN 95 Table 7: Sample of Cape Metro Municipality rental collection rate per development for December 2019 101 Table 8: What the South African experience suggests about realising deferred benefits 124 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Categorisation of case studies S 54 Figure 2: Map of land parcels for the HAB project 91 4 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their contribution to this research. The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the authors and should not be attributed to any of the key informants or interviewees. Cassandra Gabriel, Policy and Research, Human Settlements, City of Cape Town David Masimila, General Manager: Operations, CTCHC Daniel Pienaar, Deputy Director, Affordable Housing, WCDHS Dennis Waterhouse, Accountant, Amakhaya Ngoku Heather Maxwell, CEO, Social Housing Company Group (SOHCO) James Archer, Director of Public Finance, National Treasury Jens Kuhn, (former) Manager: Land and forward planning, Human Settlements, City of Cape Town Kahmiela August, Chief Director, Human Settlement Planning, WCDHS Lutz van Dijk, Member of the Board, Amakhaya Ngoku Malcolm MacCarthy, General Manager, National Association of Social Housing Organisations (NASHO) Marja Hoek-Smit, Director, International Housing Finance Program/Real Estate Center, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Patrick Bracher, Director, Norton Rose Fullbright Paul McHardy, Executive Manager, Chartwell Housing Finance Solutions Renier Erasmus, CEO, Madulammoho Housing Association Renier Kriek, Managing Director, Combined Finance Holdings Werner Jurgens, Financial Manager and Chief Operations Officer, CTCHC 5 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies DEFINITION OF TERMS Affordable housing market: The segment of the housing market that services households in the gap and subsidy market. Often the market is defined as containing properties of a value no more than R600 000. Agreement: An instalment sales agreement. Arm’s-length model: Form of early subsidisation in which government subsidises an external entity who supplies the housing unit in order to provide a loan or an option to the individual beneficiary. Aspirant buyer: A buyer in the lease stage of the lease option agreement who thus still needs to generate finance to take up the option to purchase. Bank guarantee: From a lending institution, ensures that the liabilities of a debtor will be met. Beneficiary: A beneficiary refers to someone that has been approved for a housing subsidy. To be approved, a beneficiary has to be selected for a project, meet the eligibility criteria for the grant and given an approved status on the Housing Subsidy System (HSS). Bond approval: The process whereby financial institutions approve applications for mortgages from prospective property buyers or existing owners. Bond: A deed in which one person is committed to make payment to another. In South Africa, often used interchangeably with a mortgage. Building control: A municipal function which entails checking that buildings meet the local standards as given in the Land Use Management System and the applicable standards given in the National Building Regulations and Buildings Standards Act, 103 of 1977. The function sometime entails providing advice to property owners about how they can better comply with standards. Buyer: Instalment sales buyer. Cadastral boundaries: The precise geographic boundaries of an erf as recorded by the Surveyor General and the Deeds Office and enforceable by law. Contract: An instalment sales agreement. Conveyancer: An attorney with additional qualifications who has been admitted by the High Court as a conveyancer and is thereby, as part of his authority, qualified to prepare and lodge transfer documents in the Deeds Office and to register the transfer of ownership of land in the Deeds Office. Deceased estate: All the fixed and movable assets which belonged to a deceased person. Deeds Office: The government agency in which the registrar's functions include maintaining records for all land registered in his or her area of jurisdiction, registering grants or leases of land issued by government or another authority, executing and registering deeds of transfer of land and certificates of title to land. Deeds Registry: The Deeds Office of that particular jurisdiction. Deferred ownership: A form of tenure in which an occupant (or buyer) is given occupation rights to a property with an undertaking from the landowner (or seller) that if certain conditions are met, full ownership will be provided to said occupant. Department: The Western Cape Provincial Department of Human Settlements (WCDHS). Developer: A person or company that purchases raw land, constructs and/or renovates buildings and sells developed land. The developer coordinates these activities, which can also include 6 Research Report on Deferred Ownership and Early Subsidies managing the construction process, where he/she is responsible for the financing and oversight of construction and is the accountable authority for every aspect of the construction project. “Dignified exit”: A low-cost exit to a credit agreement, allowing a buyer to retain capital contributions and gains while the seller receives compensation for the capital still owed and arrears. Direct model: Form of subsidisation where government itself is the supplier of the housing unit as well as the loan to the individual beneficiary. Dispute resolution: A set of processes for resolving disputes between parties including mediation and adjudication. Dispute resolution is usually run by bodies or parties who are independent of parties directly implicated in the dispute. Encumbrance: A burden, obstruction, or impediment on property that lessens its value or makes it less marketable; any right or interest that exists in someone other than the owner of a property and that restricts or impairs the transfer of the property or lowers its value, e.g. a mortgage. Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP): A housing subsidy for first-time home buyers to assist with purchasing a house. Mortgage linked, i.e. paid to bank/financial institution providing mortgage loan. Gap market: The housing market defined by household income, where households have incomes above the income eligibility threshold for a full subsidy but below the income at which households can afford to supply their housing needs through normal market processes unaided by subsidy. Greenfields project: A project developed on an open, unoccupied site. Housing affordability: The financial ability of a household to purchase a house. Beside income, the factors which impact this include the prime lending rate, the risk premium charged on prime, the period of the loan as well as the share of debt currently faced by the household. The availability of housing stock will also impact on affordability. Housing Code: The set of rules governing how each of the housing subsidy types must be applied. Housing Subsidy System (HSS): A national information system administered by Provincial Human Settlement Departments which records the outcome of particular project approval and subsidy approval stages for each subsidy project and/or instance in which a subsidy instrument is used and the expenditure against different project and subsidy items for each project or instance for which an instrument is used. Informal sale: An agreement between a buyer and seller, both private individuals (i.e. not government), that is deemed to be complete by the parties, but does not result in the transfer of ownership from seller to buyer being registered in the Deeds Office.