Lack of title deeds: a stumbling block to homeownership that everyone's trying to solve

IOL News

08-07-2025

Thousands of Gauteng residents have been left in limbo over the past years due to a backlog of title deeds.
Image: Sisonke Mlamla/Independent Newspapers
Despite raising families, repairing leaking roofs and painting the walls year after year, millions of South Africans do not own the homes they have lived in for decades.
These are homes filled with memories but lacking one vital thing: a title deed, says Standard Bank.
That could change for a thousand families in the foreseeable future. Through a partnership with the Khaya Lam Initiative, a national project working to transfer home ownership to those who have lived without formal recognition, a major title deed drive is underway, bringing long-awaited legal ownership to residents of municipal housing across South Africa.
These title deeds will come at no cost to the recipients. But the impact is priceless.
'These are not high-profile or high-value properties. It's municipal homes that house many vulnerable, low-income families. They are occupied by pensioners, child-headed households, and multi-generational families,' says Toni Anderson, the head of Home Services at Standard Bank.
The financial institution said it will match every employee donation rand-for-rand to accelerate progress towards the 1 000 title-deeds target.
There is an estimated 5 to 7 million municipal homes in South Africa, housing more than 20 million people. Many of these homes were said to have never been formally transferred to the families living in them, often due to lack of capacity in local municipalities or the cost of the legal process.
Delivering the Department of Human Settlement(DHS) Budget Vote last week, Minister Thembi Simelane said they remained concerned about the slow delivery of title deeds to beneficiaries.
She said the major challenge to this project is the delayed and stalled processes of township establishment and proclamation.
In this regard, the minister said they have resolved to seek concessions in respect of certain provisions of the Spatial Planning and Land-Use Management Act (SPLUMA) and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) from the respective Ministries, which would enable them to unlock title deeds for 398 194 households.
Simelane said the acceleration of the issuing of title deeds will be a critical focus area during the 7th Administration to ensure security of tenure and unlock household asset value.
'We will continue to prioritise our work as part of Operation Vulindlela to accelerate delivery, because coordination between various sector departments is central in assisting to unblock some of the challenges that currently exist.'
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Khaya Lam intervenes by identifying homes with potential for transfer, verifying rightful occupants, and coordinating with local attorneys to finalise the paperwork. Each transfer costs R3 750, a small amount in bureaucratic terms, but a significant hurdle for families living on the margins.
The current initiative, enabled by donations from the bank and its employees, aims to cover these costs for one thousand families. For many recipients, this will be the first legal recognition that the home they've long known to be theirs, is legally recognised as such.
'When you hold your title deed, you hold more than paper, you hold the key to your family's future,' Anderson says. 'You can pass it on, improve it, and most importantly, it becomes an asset these families can leverage when looking for funding.'
In 2018, a similar drive by Standard Bank and Khaya Lam saw 100 title deeds handed over to families in the Free State. Now, Standard Bank said it has invited its employees to help fund the initiative, with the company's Corporate Social Investment (CSI) unit matching their contributions rand-for-rand.
'The goal this time is to make the impact ten times bigger. Our hope is that this will spark a much larger movement, one that encourages more partners to step in and help close the massive title deed gap in our country,' Anderson said.
Earlier last week, Simelane handed over title deeds to senior citizens or their children to those who had passed away at Bishop Lavis in the City of Cape Town.
The minister said a title deed is not merely a piece of paper, but ensures security, stability and a promise of a better future. She added that it is more than a legal document; it is a tangible affirmation of one's right to land, to property, and to a home. It provides families with the ability to invest in their futures, to build wealth and to create an environment where future generations can flourish.
Independent Media Property