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Polity
Article by: Sapa
Published: 08 Sep 2010
More South Africans living in formal housing
More South Africans are living in formal housing, but proportionally fewer of them own homes, according to the general household survey released on Tuesday.


The survey by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) showed that 75,5% of South African households in 2009 lived in formal housing, compared with 73,7% in 2002.


The percentage of households in informal dwellings also slightly increased, from 13% to 13,4%.


The survey was based on a sample of 30 000 representative households of a total of 13,812-million households. In 2002, there were 11,013-million households.


The total number of households in formal dwellings, including RDP housing and State subsidised housing, had risen from 8,1-million in 2002, to 10,4-million households.

 

The percentage of black South African households living in formal dwellings increased from 65,8% in 2002 to 69,5% in 2009.


StatsS A executive manager Dr Isabelle Schmidt said that the overall increase of South Africans living in formal dwellings indicated that formal housing was being provided at a rate that was slightly higher than the country's population growth rate.


White South Africans living in traditional housing - homes with mud walls and thatch roofs - featured for the first time in the survey.


In 2002, no whites lived in traditional housing, but in 2009 there were 0,2%.


The survey did not reveal any whites living in informal households in 2009, however Schmidt said that this did not necessarily mean this was indeed the case.


She said that a variance of between 0,5% and 1% could be expected on the sample size.


Despite the growth in formal housing, there were still 1,9-million households living in informal dwellings and 1,4-million households living in traditional dwellings.


The average household size during the period in question was 3,7 people per household.


The proportion of households renting residential dwellings increased from 18,4% in 2002 to 20,2% in 2009.


However, those owning their homes declined from 68,7% in 2002 to 65,2% in 2009.


It was noted that at least 7% of those living in Reconstruction and Development Houses (RDP) or State-subsidised houses were renting out their homes.


"What we are picking up is that beneficiaries (of State housing) are renting out their RDP houses. This is not supposed to be happening," said Stas SA population and social statistics director -general Kefiloe Masiteng.


There were 1,85-million South Africans on a waiting list for State-subsidised housing, with an average waiting period of four years.


An estimated 12,8% of South African households lived in State-subsidised housing.


In 2009, most of the roofs of RDP or State-subsidised houses were corrugated iron, but in the Western Cape, 71,6% reportedly lived under asbestos roofs. The use of asbestos in South Africa was banned in March 2008.


The survey also revealed that nationally, access to flush toilets increased from 18,4% in 2002 to 24,1% in 2009.


Access to flush toilets was best in the Western Cape at 72,8%, followed by Gauteng at 50%.


Access to piped water in the house or yard increased slightly to 35,6% in informal housing and 69,9% in traditional housing.


However, households reported that refuse removal had worsened.


In 2002, municipalities were removing rubbish from 32,8% of informal dwellings and 57,8% of formal dwellings. However, in 2009 this had dropped to 31,3% and 55,1% respectively.