How do I apply for an RDP house?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking how you can apply for an RDP house.

Groundup has written an article on government housing and we will copy the relevant part for you below:

To qualify for an RDP house you must meet the National Housing Subsidy Scheme criteria. This means you must be:

• A South African citizen
• Over 21 and mentally competent to sign a contract
• Married or living with a partner, or single and have dependants (single military veterans or aged people without dependents also qualify)
• Earn less than R3,500 per month per household (so if two people in your family earn and these earnings amount to more than R3,500 per month you will not qualify)
• A first time government subsidy recipient
• A first time home owner

If you are disabled you are supposed to be given preference and your house is supposed to be adapted to meet your needs.

To apply for a government subsidy house take the following documents to a provincial office of the Department of Human Settlements, or your municipal offices:

• Applicant and spouse’s identity documents (green book or ID card)
• Certified copies of birth certificates of children
• Proof of income if working, e.g. salary slip

You will be asked to fill in a housing subsidy application form. Depending on your province or municipality, you will then be registered on the National Housing Needs Register or your Municipal Housing Demands Database. This is a “waiting list”. Once the project is finalised and the houses built, you will be given keys and a title deed to your home, but it can take many years.

It is illegal to sell an RDP house before you’ve lived in it for eight years. It is illegal to rent out an RDP house.

To check how far you are on the waiting list for a house call 0800 146 873 or go to your municipality’s website.

Note: There is a common misconception that individual ward councillors are involved with the allocation process. They are not! Ward councillors can tell you where to go and who to speak to so that you can register on the housing database, but a ward councillor is not involved in the allocation of houses and you shouldn’t pay a ward councillor to take up your case.

Note: The Department of Human Settlements no longer refers to RDP houses but has updated the RDP housing plan, and now calls it “Breaking New Ground” or BNG. They want to integrate different types of housing – rented, bought and subsidised – and provide facilities like schools, clinics and shops, to improve the quality of people’s lives. BNG houses are supposed to be larger than RDP houses, with two bedrooms, a separate bathroom with a toilet, shower and hand basin, a combined kitchen and living room area and electricity installation, where electricity supply is available in the township. The same conditions apply to qualify for a BNG house as for an RDP house.