Still Waiting as a Backyarder? Cape Town Has the Money but Cannot to Deliver

If you live as a backyarder in Cape Town or are on the housing waiting list this is for you. You wait in shacks or informal settlements while the city promises housing, announces big budgets, and talks about rates cuts but nothing changes for your family.

Cape Town has more money for housing than ever. The Human Settlements budget grew from R213 million in 2021/22 to R1.229 billion in 2025/26. Yet the city cannot spend it. In 2022/23 and 2023/24 over R800 million went back to the National Treasury. Another R255 million meant for informal settlement upgrades was lost over three years. In 2024/25 R100 million was reallocated to provinces that could actually build homes.

Cape Town Not Delivering on Housing Budgets

This is not about a lack of money. It is about a city that can budget but cannot deliver. It is about Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis making headlines while your family is still waiting for a home.

The numbers show how serious this is. In 2019/20 the Western Cape built 8,038 BNG houses. By 2024/25 only 3,046 were built. Cape Town builds 4,000 to 5,000 subsidised houses a year. The city needs 50,000 a year. At this pace the 350,000 households on the waiting list will wait 70 to 88 years.

Social housing is worse. Fewer than 5,000 units have been built since 2000. Only 855 are within 10 kilometers of the city centre where jobs are. Promises of 12,000 affordable homes have delivered fewer than 5,000. Every unspent million means 65 families go without a home.

The Housing Waiting List Continues to Grow

The human cost is on you. Cape Town has 497 informal settlements housing 230,000 households. Backyarders multiply in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Langa, and Nyanga. Every year of under-spending adds 45,000 households to the waiting list. Every million returned to Treasury is 65 families living another year in unsafe overcrowded conditions.

Housing: The Closer One Looks, The More Glaring the DA’s Failure

Mayor Hill-Lewis can announce rates cuts and housing promises. The reality is that your household is still waiting. R1.229 billion is budgeted for 2025/26. 350,000 households wait. 45,000 new households join the queue each year. Only 3,046 units were delivered in 2024/25.

Cape Town can solve this crisis. It can build homes, give families security, and end decades of waiting. But it requires leadership that puts backyarders and those on the waiting list first. Every returned rand is a broken promise. Every unbuilt house is a family left behind.