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Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000)

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Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) Manual

7. Functions and Structure of the Department of Human Settlements

7.3 Services rendered by the Department

 

The Department primarily:

 

• Establishes and maintains a policy and legislative framework required for facilitation of a sustainable and integrated human settlements objective in line with government's objective and departmental mandate; and
• Facilitates apportionment of annual allocation to provinces and municipalities for human settlements, infrastructure development and land acquisition.

 

In addition to the role that provinces and municipalities play with regard to human settlements, the following national institutions were established to facilitate the human settlements related needs of the sector:

 

Institutions

Services

Clients

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Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB)
• Regulate, maintain and promote the standard of conduct by estate agents having due regard to the public interest;
• Issue fidelity fund certificates to qualifying applicants;
• Prescribe the standard of training of estate agents;
• Investigate complaints against estate agents and institute disciplinary proceedings against offending estate agents where required; and
• Manage and control the estate agents fidelity fund.

Housing consumers and estate agents.

DHS, EAAB offices.

Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS)
• Provide a dispute resolution service for community schemes;
• Provide training for conciliators, adjudicators and other employees of the ombud service;
• Regulate, monitor and control the quality of all sectional title schemes governance documentation; and
• Take custody of, preserve and provide public access to scheme governance documentation.

Community scheme body corporate, community scheme unit owners and tenants.

DHS, CSOS offices.

Housing Development Agency (HDA)
• Identify, acquire, hold, develop and release well-located land and buildings for the development of housing and human settlements; and
• Provide project management support and housing development services.

Housing consumers, developers and organs of state (municipalities and metros).

DHS, provincial department of human settlements (PDHS), municipalities, HDA offices.

National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC)
• Regulate the home building environment through home enrolment and home builder registration processes;
• Protect the housing consumer against structural defects through building inspections and administration of the warranty reserve;
• Promote innovative home building technologies; and
• Set home building standards and improve the capabilities of home builders through training.

Housing consumers and home builders.

DHS, PDHS, municipalities, NHBRC offices.

National

Housing

Finance

Corporation

(NHFC)
• Provide innovative and affordable housing finance solutions for the low-to middle-income housing market;
• The NHFC provides the following services:
▪ Private rental term loans;
▪ Social housing rental facilities;
▪ Bridging finance to developers;
▪ Wholesale incremental housing facilities;
▪ Wholesale homeownership facilities; and
▪ Administration of the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP).

Low-income earners, established housing institutions, social housing institutions, developers, non-banking retail intermediaries and banks’ lending to poor households.

DHS, PDHS, municipalities, NHFC offices.

• Empower low-income households in rural areas to access housing credit.
• Operates as a wholesale lender and thus attains its mandate by providing loans through retail intermediaries to its target market to be utilised for incremental housing purposes.

Non-banking retail intermediaries

DHS, PDHS, municipalities, NHFC offices (RHLF merged with NHFC effective from 1 October 2018)

• Provide bridging finance to small, medium and established contractors building low-and moderate-income housing, and related community facilities and infrastructure; and
▪ Provide programme and fund management services.

Contractors and developers

DHS, PDHS, municipalities, NHFC offices (NURCHA merged with NHFC effective from 1 October 2018)

Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA)
• Regulate the social housing sector in South Africa; and
• Approve, administer and disburse both institutional investment and capital grants (namely the Restructuring Capital Grant and the Institutional Investment Grant).

Social housing institutions, private developers.

DHS, PDHS, municipalities, SHRA offices.