title: Moving up the ladder or stuck on the bottom rung? Homeownership as a solution to poverty in urban South Africa.
abstract: In the global South, policies providing property titles to low-income households are increasingly implemented as a solution to poverty. Integrating poor households into the capitalist economy using state-subsidized homeownership is intended to provide poor people with an asset that can be used in a productive manner. In this article the South African "housing subsidy system" is assessed using quantitative and qualitative data from in-depth research in a state-subsidized housing settlement in the city of Cape Town. The findings show that while state-subsidized property ownership provides long-term shelter and tenure security to low-income households, houses have mixed value as a financial asset. Although state-subsidized houses in South Africa are a financially tradable asset, transaction values are too low for low-income vendors to reach the next rung on the housing ladder, the township market. Furthermore, low-income homeowners are reticent to use their (typically primary) asset as collateral security for credit, and thus property ownership is not providing the financial returns that titling theories assume.
authors.affiliation: University College London.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemanski
mesh_terms: D006078:Government Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010067:Ownership / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011157:Population Dynamics / Q000266:history; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012923:Social Class / Q000266:history; D012937:Social Mobility / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D012940:Social Problems / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history; D013019:South Africa / Q000208:ethnology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history