Housing subsidy for middle income earners now available

Minister of Human Settlements Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, has called on citizens who want to buy a home or property for the first time to apply for a government housing subsidy.

The government’s Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) aims to encourage home ownership among people who earn between R3501 and R22 000 a month. The applicants must have applied for a home loan with an accredited banking institution or a non-bank financial institution.

The government’s housing subsidy for middle-income earners can be used as a deposit or reduce the bond balance. The once-off financial assistance for qualifying beneficiaries ranges from R27 960 to R121 626, depending on the level of household income.

 “We have designed this subsidy to assist low income workers, both in the private and public sectors. I have directed National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) or Human Settlements Development Bank (HSDB) to make sure that they have a call centre and capacity to process all applications and to go on a roadshow to educate the public about this subsidy,” Sisulu said.

“This subsidy is to encourage home ownership among our teachers, factory workers, receptionists, nurses and police among others,” she said.

She added that a budget of R461million has been set aside for the housing subsidy this financial year. This is expected to benefit 7600 qualifying beneficiaries and leverage about R3,2 billion from the private sector financial institutions.

 “Our resolve to restore the dignity of our people through human settlements goes beyond us giving fully subsidised houses to the indigent. We are also committed to responding to the housing needs of our middle-income earners through FLISP. We call on our people to seize this opportunity and apply for financial assistance,” Sisulu said.

During the 2020/2021 financial year, the HSDB processed 2815 applications and of these, 2120 were approved with a total value of R111 million,  triggering more than R1 billion in home loans approved by banking institutions.

Sisulu said that plans to develop the housing subsidy policy to enable non-mortgage applicants to benefit from the programme was at an advanced stage and is expected to be concluded in the next few months. This will see people mainly in rural areas applying for financial assistance to add to their home loans to build their own homes.

The NHFC is also in the process of signing service level agreements with banking institutions as well as signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Banking Association of South Africa (BASA), once the policy has been approved in few months.