Help us continue to do this work. Become a supporter
Support this work
Our World in Charts

Our World in Charts is a unique collection of hundreds of charts published by The Outlier. The charts cover key issues both in South Africa and around the world on topics such as education, economy, politics, sport and more. Republish our charts for free.

Click To View More Charts
HousingDecline-1
  • 82% fewer houses built last year than in 1998/99
  • Just 42,773 government-funded houses were built
  • 3-million people still on the national housing needs register

Just 42,773 government-subsidised houses were built in South Africa in the 2023/24 financial year. That’s an 82% decline compared with the 235,635 houses built 26 years ago in 1998/99.

The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), now known as Breaking New Ground (BNG), was introduced in 1994 by Nelson Mandela. Since then, more than 3.5-million houses have been built for recipients who met certain criteria.

The government had aimed to upgrade all informal settlements by 2014 but, a decade later, almost 3-million people are still on the national housing needs register. The Department of Human Settlements says not all the people on the register actually qualify for a BNG house.

The department blamed their slow progress on Covid-19 and budget cuts in an email conversation with The Outlier. But numbers were on the decline long before the pandemic and, two years later, there is no significant sign of recovery.

— 9 July, 2024

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter for more charts like this

Read by 10k+ professionals every week ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Our charts have been featured in ...
BusinessTech
Daily Investor
Daily Maverick
Experian
GroundUp
MoneyWeb
MyBroadband
Reuters
The Continent
The Conversation
The Open Letter
The South African
Times Live
Top Auto
Vestact