Middle-income earners called to apply for government housing subsidy

Middle-income earners who seek to buy a home or property for the first time, have been called to apply for a government housing subsidy.

Minister of human settlements, water and sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu called on property seekers to apply for a finance-linked individual subsidy programme provided by government.

Sisulu said the scheme encouraged homeownership for those who earned between R3 501 – R22 000 as the once-off financial assistance for qualifying beneficiaries ranges from R27 960 – R121 626, depending on the level of household income.

“The applicants must have been approved for a home loan by an accredited banking institution or a non-bank financial institution.”

She said the financial assistance from government for the middle-income earners could be used as a deposit or to reduce the bond balance.

“We have designed this subsidy to assist low-income workers both in the private and public sectors.”

Sisulu said she had directed National Housing Finance Corporation to make sure that they had a call centre and capacity to process all applications and to go on roadshows to educate the public about this subsidy.

“This subsidy is to encourage homeownership among our teachers, factory workers, receptionists, nurses and police, among others,” said Sisulu.

She said a budget of R461-million had been set aside for this financial year and was expected to benefit 7 600 qualifying beneficiaries and leverage about R3,2-billion from the private sector financial institutions.

“Our resolve to restore the dignity of our people through human settlements goes beyond us giving fully subsidised houses to the indigent.

“We are also committed to responding to the housing needs of our middle-income earners through the scheme. We call on our people to seize this opportunity and apply for financial assistance,” she said.

Sisulu said during the 2020/2021 financial year, the human settlements development bank processed 2 815 applications and of these, 2 120 were approved with a total value of R111-million.

She said more than R1-billion home loans were approved by different banking institutions on the back of the R111-million, while for the year, over R60-million had been disbursed to 1 136 beneficiaries.

She said her department was pleased that progress to develop the policy to enable the non-mortgage applicants to benefit from the programme was at an advanced stage and was expected to be concluded in the next few months.

“This will see people mainly in the rural areas applying for financial assistance to add to their home loans to build their own homes.”