Home

Western Cape rolls out housing subsidy initiative in George

Reading Time: 3 minutes

First-time homeowners in George on the Garden Route were handed keys to their brand new homes as the Western Cape government rolled out the first batch of its Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) in the region.

FLISP is a government subsidy available to South African first-time home buyers.  Western Cape Minister of Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers, also handed over title deeds and broke ground for new housing developments in several areas along the Garden Route and in the Little Karoo.

The various outreach engagements saw the team visiting Stillbaai, Plettenberg Bay, George and Dysselsdorp.  In George, the FLISP programme welcomed new homeowners in Syferfontein. One of the new homeowners, Dawn Folding, says by taking advantage of the partial subsidy, they managed to secure a bond.

“I got off like a R100 000 so basically I’m paying like R218 000 for this house. So it’s going to be small monthly payments, much lower than the normal payments you have to pay for a house or flat.”

Dianne and Lorenz Christians have already been living in their new home for more than four months.

“I think it’s beautiful. It gives a person lots of peace of mind knowing you coming to your home. At the end of the day, I tell people we’ve been given a house but it’s up to us to make it a home. This is a proud moment for me and the wife. We first time homeowners, this is a part of stability. Our conveyance has made it possible to live in comfort, to live in a safe environment, clean, well maintained after all these years.”

Those applying need to meet certain criteria.

Estate Agent Nandi Bulabula says couples with children are prioritised and you also need a joint monthly income of between R3500 and R22 000.

“So they need to come with the birth certificates and IDs. So we apply for the FLISP to know how much they might get from province. Let’s say the province will give them about R100 000. Remember these houses only sell for R320 000, so we go to the bank for the balance that is R220 000.”

Simmers says this is a way they are assisting the youth to enter the property market.

“The state ultimately gives a form of subsidisation to lower the monthly bond costs. But the fact that they put their hands up, they don’t want anything for free, they want to contribute to the fiscus of the local economy, they want to be rate payers, but also want to get the experience of owning your own home and taking ownership of the opportunities which the state gives to them.”

Between 6 000 and 7 000 new FLISP homes have been earmarked for George.

Author

MOST READ