CBPM Conference 2026 · Vol. 2026, Issue 1

Operational, financial and policy constraints limiting emerging property developers’ participation in affordable housing delivery in Polokwane Municipality

Voninga Sono and Roy Cumberlege

Keywords: Emerging property deveopers, affordable housing; operational challenges, financial constraints.

Abstract

Robust emerging property developers are an important step towards dealing with housing shortages and promoting more inclusive housing development in secondary cities in South Africa. However, the participation of this sector is limited by ongoing operational, financial and institutional problems. This paper aims to uncover the operational, financial, and policy-related barriers that limit the ability of emerging property developers in Polokwane Municipality from participating effectively in affordable housing delivery. This will make it possible to recommend possible solutions for enhancing their participation. The qualitative research design was adopted, relying on semi-structured interviews with 15 emerging property developers from the Polokwane Municipality. Purposive sampling was used to select information-rich participants with experience of the development of affordable housing and of the regulatory, financial, and operational context under investigation. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that there are three sets of challenges: structural and operational, financial exclusion, and weak policy implementation. Major challenges include slow administrative processes, lack of access to serviced land, inadequate infrastructure, high collateral requirements, difficult loan conditions, and uneven application of existing policies. Due to these challenges, project costs and timelines are negatively affected and this limits the competitiveness and sustainability of emerging developers. The qualitative nature of the study and the focus on only one municipality constitute a major limitation in terms of generalisability. This research contributes to literature on the provision of affordable housing by revealing the interconnectedness of operational, financial, and policy constraints, highlighting the need for coordinated policy interventions ass opposed to isolated initiatives.