LOW-INCOME RENTAL HOUSING - ARE SOUTH-AFRICAN CITIES DIFFERENT

A significant proportion of the black urban population in South Africa rent accommodation. Surveys conducted in two low-income settlements i n Cape Town and Johannesburg show that the rental housing scene is in many ways similar to that found in other Third World cities. Landlords are older than their tenants, many are female, their families are lar ger, their homes have more space and better services. Few Landlords ma ke any money and landlord-tenant relationships are not generally confl ictive. At the same time, rental conditions in the survey settlements appear to be very different from those found in most other poor cities . Most significant is that few South African landlords build accommoda tion; the majority merely offer space to tenants who build their own s hacks. The poor quality of accommodation helps keep rents low which in turn accentuates the feeling that is it not worth Investing in rental accommodation. Few landlords actively seek out tenants, most grant sp ace in the backyard only out of compassion. Further research is invest igating whether more typical forms of rental housing exist in Cape Tow n and Johannesburg. The project also seeks to persuade the South Afric an government that it should develop some kind of rental housing polic y.