14 million households don’t qualify for home loans
2012-02-02 16:42
Nearly 14 million households do not earn enough to qualify for bank home loans.
“The income figures demonstrate the pressure on the state’s housing delivery programmes with 60% of all households eligible for government-subsidised housing,” said Kerwin Lebone from the institute’s research department today.
In 2009, only 12% of households earned enough to qualify for an unassisted bank mortgage, according to the latest statistics released by the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR).
Only 700 000 households qualified for bank finance in the affordable housing sector.
These figures emanate from a 2011 report by the Financial and Fiscal Commission.
In 2009, at least 60% of households earned R3?500 or less a month and qualified for a state housing grant.
Seven percent of households earned between R7 000 and R10 500, which did not allow them to qualify for government housing programmes and not enough to get a bank mortgage. It said the number of informal backyard dwellings rose by 83% between 1996 and 2010.
“People who were on the waiting list of government housing programmes, and the majority of those that do not qualify for such programmes, often migrated to backyard dwellings that offered cheaper rentals,” the SAIRR said.
- SAPA