adminHe said another 35 percent would be paid in equal instalments within the first six months while the remaining 30 percent would be paid within the next 12 months.
The beneficiaries would therefore be required to pay the full amount over a period of 18 months.
Mr Magagula said the council was yet to finalise on the price of the stands but would be in the same range with the previous ones, which were about $6 000.
“The project will start as soon as funds are made available as the stands have already been planned and surveyed,” said Mr Magagula.
Site preparation and setting up is expected to take two weeks while servicing would take between four and six weeks.
Mr Magagula said the main objective of the project was to provide affordable serviced housing stands, create diversity in the city’s housing stock, reduce the waiting list and to provide infrastructure to the suburb.
The local authority hopes to finance the housing project to its completion through the instalments to be paid by beneficiaries.
“The notion to involve beneficiaries in the servicing of stands is not new to the city council as it was successfully done in Kelvin West where beneficiaries paid deposits, which were thereafter used to service the industrial stands,” said Mr Magagula.
The city fathers castigated private developers who were being given allocated housing stands to develop but failed to do so on time, hence the decision by council to involve beneficiaries.
The council also bemoaned the pace at which progress was taking place in suburbs like Mahatshula in the development of housing stands despite such suburbs being identified as the panacea to the housing problems.
The city council admitted it has been failing to avail medium and low-density stands, which as a result has led to people applying for in-fill stands.
The council has reported that in the past 12 months, it received more than 500 new applications for medium and low density stands.
Early this year, the council announced that it was going to avail 3 743 stands.
However, it came under fire from residents after coming up with stringent conditions in the allocation of stands demanding that home seekers who have been allocated stands pay a deposit of $4 200 within three days or risk losing the stands.
The conditions applied to home seekers in the new Emhlangeni medium-density suburb, where beneficiaries were supposed to pay a deposit of $4 200.
Those in Pumula South and Cowdray Park were required to raise about $2 700 as deposit.
This drew the ire of residents who felt the move was corrupt and meant to sideline them from getting the stands, because if they failed to raise the money within the stipulated period, the offer would be revoked.
The matter was later put on hold.
Online Reporter