Conradie housing construction commence in September

Housing construction at the Conradie Better Living Model Project (BLMP) is officially commencing this month. This is exciting news.

The R3 billion Conradie development seeks to redress historical imbalance precipitated through apartheid spatial planning legacies. This critical redress will be achieved by enabling and making available well-located state-owned land for affordable, integrated residentially-led development by the Private Sector. This development must optimise urban land use and create a safe and vibrant Live-Work-Play-Learn environment for people and families close to public transport and sustainable work opportunities.

The 22-hectare former Conradie Hospital site in Pinelands was identified as a suitable location for the pilot or ‘exemplar’ for the Better Living Model which will create 3 500 residential-led, mixed-use, mixed-income housing opportunities close to the Cape Town CBD where people can live, work, play and learn.

The developer, Concor, will ensure that at least 49% of the housing units (1 715 units) are affordable, grant-funded units and will build two new affordable schools with a total capacity of 1 600 learners for the Conradie Park target group. Over 2 000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase.

Construction of Phase 1 of the project commenced this month and is expected to be completed in April 2022.

By the time Conradie Park is complete in 2026, it is also expected to have sports and recreation facilities, retail, service offices as well as excellent access to public transport.

Key progress on residential units in Conradie include:

• Social Housing: Construction of the first four blocks of 432 Social Housing Units commences in September 2020.
• FLISP Residential: The sales of the first buildings of 288 units commences in September 2020.
• Open Market Residential: Sales are in progress for the first building of 106 units. Building plans have been approved. Sales have, however, been affected by COVID-19 and the economic impact of the pandemic.

Since assuming my duties as Minister of Transport and Public Works, I met with many role-players in the construction sector, fostering a new partnership between the state and the private sector to collectively tackle the challenges that manifest in the everyday lives of citizens.

Infrastructure has rightly been highlighted as a critical enabler of not only our economy and of our efforts aimed at getting out of the current economic crisis, which has resulted in growing levels of unemployment and poverty, but also of connecting and enabling our communities to access opportunities and gain dignity.

This is only the beginning of many good things to come. We are working towards unlocking more parcels of land to bring people closer to the city in other projects to integrate our communities.