Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 40
can own a home below the value of
R 1 million. Many households do not
own the full rights to their homes. This
means that those families lose the
power to inherit or sell the property
they live on, effectively “denying them
the property market,” in Professor
Viruly’s words.
However, in recent years, South
Africans have begun to show a much
broader interest in property as an
income-generating opportunity.
This demonstrates the potential for
growth in the property space and
many small-scale developers have
managed to start bridging the gaps
present in the market.
Professor Viruly reflects on his own
journey to becoming a researcher in
this field, and one interaction sticks
out. “I was, for many years, much
more involved with the commercial
property market,” says Professor
Viruly. “And then I had a colleague
who left this big folder on my desk
and said, ‘Have a look at this, it
might interest you.’ Well, I started
reading that over a weekend and that
completely altered my interest into
the affordable housing market.” Along
with interactions that he was already
having with the Development Action
Group, Professor Viruly says that
this moment changed his view of
the South African property market.
“You just need that one person who
shifts you.”
For over ten years, Professor
Viruly has been running property
entrepreneurship programmes
with small-scale developers, giving
people who are new to the space the
necessary guidance to progress. One
ISSUE 2
“AS AN ECONOMIST,
I GET HIGHLY
IRRITATED WHEN I
DON’T SEE A MARKET
FUNCTIONING
PROPERLY.”
of the biggest challenges that microdevelopers face is compliance. “We’ve
been asking ourselves what needs to
change in the regulatory environment
to respond to small-scale developers,
so that they move out of the informal
sector,” says Viruly. “As an economist,
I get highly irritated when I don’t
see a market functioning properly,”
he adds with a smile. When asked
what an ideal property market would
look like, the professor laughs and
says that an ideal market is very
hard to come by. But if all factors
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