The Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)

RECOMMENDED POLICY AND STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

3.1 RESIDENTIAL

This policy is to deal with the social, economic and environmental impacts of residential land (including delivery and pricing), subject to the NLEP and ULEP provisions. Like peri-urban land and environment policy, the activities and objectives of the Urban Development Project are to be closely coordinated with this policy.

ISSUES SUMMARY

Access to Housing

Inadequate serviced land for residential purposes for low-income households. Over half the urban population lives in informal settlements, with concomitant threats to environmental health.
The formal residential property market does not cater for the needs of the majority of urban residents.
High cost and low affordability of land and housing. Residential land is unaffordable to most, for many reasons inclusive of plot size requirements.
Housing finance availability, for low income groups in particular.
A high proportion of serviced and other land withheld from the market for speculative purposes (more specifically, to capture gains in land value resulting from public investments or general social and economic forces).
Surveyed and serviced land has not kept pace with land use requirements in certain market sectors, and exceeds demand in others.
The supply of affordable rental accommodation and the legal rights and obligations of both tenants and owners.

Infrastructure and Facilities

Insufficient infrastructure and services within urban areas.
A shortage of affordable, physically accessible and environmentally acceptable public transport.
The supply of and access to adequate quantities of safe drinking water.
Inadequate sanitation or environmentally sound waste management.
Access to employment, markets and retail outlets.
Access to power and communication services.
Safety and security.
Contamination of residential land (e.g. by asbestos and other environmental health aspects of construction) and the lack of awareness of same.

SUMMARY POLICY PROPOSALS

Status of Policy

An Urban Housing Policy received cabinet approval in 1993, but has not as yet been implemented. A Plot Pricing Policy has been formulated within MHUD which should be revisited as part of this exercise and examined in the context of the obligations under Habitat II.

Broad overall objective

Provision of adequate and environmentally healthy shelter for all in urban areas.

Policy Principles

All urban settlements be sustainably managed.
Urban densification be increased from the current low level to medium level, insofar as the densities remain compatible with social and environmental amenity.
Active participation of the private sector, both formal and informal, be encouraged in land and housing delivery.
Recognition of the right of access to adequate shelter of the destitute, in particular street children.
Houses be allowed to also serve as functional workplaces, within the parameters of environmental health and taking into account the economic realities typical of the locality.

Policy Practical Elements

Aspects of regulatory and legal frameworks be strengthened to enable markets to work, and those aspects that restrict the market without demonstrably redeeming social or environmental benefits be weakened or repealed.
Encourage the market-based emergence of a "bridge" of housing types and values between the present informal and formal levels.
Institute market and credit access for low-income earners, including involving local institutions in the provision of micro-credit.
Stimulate private sector investment in the housing market by encouraging joint ventures and providing clear coordination between the public and the private sector.

Policy Supportive Elements

Legal codes to facilitate small scale, corporate, and cooperative land development activities be revised, including to provision of access to credit to such bodies.
Local authorities to encourage the growth of suitable indigenous plants in residential areas.
Self-built housing be promoted within Structure Plans and Building Regulatory requirements.

SUMMARY STRATEGY PROPOSALS

General Strategic Approach

To enable property market forces to work, and channel them into socially and environmentally desirable directions. This will allow the identification of those whose socio-economic circumstances put them below the reach of potential ownership or rental market enfranchisement, who may then be targetted for humanitarian aid and shelter programmes.

Practical Strategy Elements

Residential Land Management

To incorporate a capacity for housing market assessment within the proposed nationwide Land Information System.
To investigate land allocation mechanisms to bring about more equitable distribution of land; in particular, to ensure strict compliance with terms of agreement of sale.
To simplify and ensure the transparency and accountability of procedures, mechanisms and forms used in connection with land transactions.
To reform land tenure in order to strengthen tenure security and facilitate the provision of infrastructure.
To encourage the enactment and market acceptance of tenure legislation (such as Sectional Titles) which promote densification to medium density levels.
To set government instruments in place to monitor property market performance for compliance with taxation and other laws.
To encourage the initiatives of the Water Services Corporation in the continued and extended supply of safe drinking water to urban areas, and the WSC's coordination with other urban service suppliers, and with other water providers.
To make full use of existing infrastructure in urban areas and encourage optimal population density on serviced land.
To develop mechanisms to periodically assess what is happening on the ground with regard to land rights in urban informal areas.
To increase access to training for private sector participants in urban land management and development.
To integrate the provision of environmental infrastructure: water, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management.
To assist NGO's in the provision of shelter for the destitute through government property management and other mechanisms as appropriate.

Housing Finance

To establish cooperative housing societies (following the recommendations in Kaul report, below).
To expedite the implementation of the Basle accord, which gives a lower risk rating to banks' mortgage portfolios.
To stimulate the creation of new longer-term deposit instruments for banks - eg "housing certificates with the same tax status as "share" investors have in the SBS.
To review legislation and institutions with a view to stimulating the capital market and forming a secondary mortgage market targeted to the relevant income groups.

Community Participation Strategy

To institute a participatory approach based primarily upon local government elections, but secondarily upon encouragement of special interest groups and NGOs, and community organisations for locale-specific issues.
To establish a formal liaison committee in each urban area to facilitate effective cooperation between traditional and modern authorities, in activities such as care for the destitute.

KEY REFERENCE MATERIAL

Dlamini, M. 1993.The Habitable World: Promoting Sustainable Human Settlements Development.
Kaul, S. 1996. Housing Finance for Low Income Households in Swaziland.
World Bank 1996. Swaziland Financial Sector Study.

MINISTERIAL INVOLVEMENT

MHUD, MNRE.