RDP houses being sold on websites

CRAFTY RDP homeowners have gone digital and are now selling their state-built houses – often illegally – on websites such as Gumtree, OLX and Junk Mail.

The trend has prompted Human Settlements Minister Connie September to launch an investigation.

A search of the websites revealed that dozens of homeowners are listing their houses for sale, with prices ranging from R40 000 to R200 000.

Most of the listings are for houses in Gauteng but there are some in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo and the Western Cape. Some houses were offered for rent. A homeowner in Vosloorus, on the East Rand, put her house on the market in December for R90 000. It sold within a week.

According to the Housing Act, a state-funded home can be sold only after eight years of ownership and the beneficiary of the state’s largesse is not allowed to lease it to someone else.

A Johannesburg man, who claimed he was in the business of selling RDP houses, said he recently sold a two- bedroom RDP house near Cosmo City, northwest of Johannesburg, for R80 000.

September said she wanted to get to the bottom of the problem.

“The department will certainly follow up on the legality of these sales. We have initiated an investigation of illegal sales of RDP houses,” she said.

In KwaZulu-Natal, premier Senzo Mchunu described the online sale of RDP houses as “audacity of the worst kind”. He said there were many examples of people selling houses well before the eight-year period was up, or renting them out.