ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the main features of the housing problem and evaluates policy alternatives. The discrepancy between housing need, economic capacity and effective demand has produced a variety of different responses, for example: engineers comment on the shortage of artisans; and construction companies lament the limited extent to which those in need of housing can afford housing. Calculations of the housing backlog have very limited value. They generally start with an assumption that, in the absence of effective demand, every household, however it is defined, is entitled to a house. KwaNdebele's residents may not want to move closer to the cities since a location in KwaNdebele minimizes housing costs; for instance, in 1984 only 4 per cent of total household cash expenditure went to housing. Neither land readjustment nor land banking should be recommended for the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging.
