While great strides have been made in housing provision, the shortfall remains of great concern, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Tuesday.

Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote, Sexwale said spending on housing service delivery had increased from R4,8-billion in 2004/05 to R10,9-billion in the last financial year - increasing at an average rate of 23%.

Nationally, over 570 housing projects had been approved and a housing grant of R12,4-billion allocated for this financial year, translating into the construction of 226 000 new housing units across all nine provinces.

In the first two months of this financial year - April 1 to May 31 - provincial housing departments had already reported delivery of 22 000 housing units, he said.

This brought the number of established homes delivered by the government since 1994 to 2,3-million units, accommodating about 13-million people.

"Additional funds are being allocated to provide large-scale upgrades of informal settlements and the alignment of the national housing grant with inflationary price increases."

However, although the housing grant allocation had been increased over the 2009 medium-term expenditure framework, departmental studies concluded that continuing with the current trend in housing budgets would lead to a fund shortfall of R102-billion by 2012, which would increase to R253-billion by 2016.

"This is of great concern," he said.

"Furthermore, we remain concerned about houses that are reportedly standing empty, especially in the light of huge demands for housing of almost 2,1-million units.

"We have taken cognisance of the need for housing in urban pressure points around the country and are in the process of responding to this with alternative tenure options, including affordable rental housing stock.

"We have also strengthened our resolve to provide housing assistance to people living in shacks, who constitute the bulk of the housing backlog.

"Significant strides have been made towards identifying those informal settlements that can be upgraded in-situ with essential services, and work in this regard is progressing satisfactorily, as long as we successfully arrest the spread of informal settlements.

"We have mapped all these informal settlements countrywide, and this area will be receiving serious ongoing attention," Sexwale said.