Hon Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Ministers, hon members, let me also hasten to congratulate the Minister and Deputy Minister on their appointments. I have no doubt that, with the knowledge between the two of them, they will be able to address some of the challenges the department is facing.
It is virtually impossible to redress the housing backlog in this country without effectively dealing with the unavailability or high cost of appropriately located land. For me, land is critical. It does not make sense that state-owned land should be sold to the private sector, and then bought back, at a cost, to deliver houses to the people. You are simply increasing the price of the housing unit.
Access to affordable land will lead to affordable human settlements. I want to stress this point: Access to affordable land will lead to affordable houses. Furthermore, the speed with which the conversion of land to stands takes place will also help to mitigate the high cost of houses in this country. The delays in the processing of these applications only help to push up the cost of housing because the cost of infrastructure continues to increase, and the cost of maintaining and looking after the land also increases.
There is no possibility of increasing the pace of delivery in this country without addressing the high vacancy rate at both provincial and local government levels. We can theorise and have all the wishes, but at the end of the day you need resources on the ground to handle the challenges. [Interjections.] [Laughter.]
In order to measure the current performance levels of state institutions, it will be important, hon Minister, to conduct an investigation on the time it takes an application for rezoning and environmental impact studies to be processed, from the time the application is handed to the municipality to the time the record of decision is awarded to the applicant.
This is very crucial. I argue that a fast-tracked project takes a minimum of 12 to 18 months before a record of decision is handed over to the applicant. I am saying "fast-tracked", which means that a normal application will take between 18 and 24 months, even 36 months, before land is ready to be converted from land to stands.
Government alone is unable to address the housing backlog in this country. It is absolutely necessary for government to create the necessary conditions to attract the private sector to this market.
In addition to this, the government should encourage housing-related NGOs to assist in the delivery of sustainable human settlements. In many countries NGOs play a big role in the delivery of housing. Here, we say that government alone or together with the private sector will be able to deliver. This may not happen.
The Housing Development Agency is a very important agency that has been created since the Department of Housing was established. But, I'm saying that the HDA alone is also not adequate.