Land Assembly Policy for the Human Settlements Sector

In response to recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture, 2018, the Department of Human Settlements developed this Human Settlement Land Assembly Policy. The Policy is based on an extensive South African-based document review, covering relevant material relating to land assembly, management, tenure, and residential property transactions relevant to the human settlement sector, as well as a review of international case studies and megatrends. This was tested in several forums and then updated and approved by MINMEC in 2020.

The purpose of the Human Settlement Land Assembly Policy is to transform the basis by which land is assembled for low-income and affordable housing in South Africa to:

• Enable housing delivery by all sectors of society at the required scale, which contributes positively to building cities that are progressively more equitable, integrated, and inclusive of the poor, more compact (effective and efficient to administer) and financially and environmentally sustainable; and
• Increase access to residential land for individual households so that they have secure tenure (ownership or rental) and live in good quality accommodation (healthy and safe with access to utility services) with access to urban economic and social opportunity. 

Abstract based directly on source.