The talk of land expropriation without compensation has hit the affordable home sector hard, according to Business Report, speaking to various players in that specific market.

According to Tom Gillham, the chief executive of E Home Loans, the group has seen a 40% decline in demand for affordable houses in the Gauteng property market – a trend seen across the sector over the past two months.

This was an undercurrent of the current land debate, Gillham said, with people saying they do not want to buy a home now because they will be given a home and land for free later.

Other industry players Business Report spoke to echoed this sentiment, with executive director of Calgro M3 Holdings Derek Steyn reportedly saying that his company had experienced first-hand effects of the land expropriation debate.

According to Steyn, Calgro has had attempted invasions of some units, while other tenants had simply stopped paying rent, under the belief that they would get the unit free under new land reform laws.

He claimed that “every single project” has seen attempted invasions of some kind – though none have yet been successful.

According to the report, the entire sector is being impacted by political insecurity, and it is impacting developers’ capacity and desire to invest in new developments, or to acquire land for the purpose of development.

Land grabs are illegal

Uncertainty has been one of the lingering issues with the land expropriation debate.

Last week, president Cyril Ramaphosa tried to alleviate some of the concerns around the discussion, by clarifying the government’s intentions with proposed land expropriation laws.

First and foremost, the president said that land grabs and the illegal occupation of private property was illegal, and that the state would take action against those who were found to be doing so.

He said that the aim of the ANC’s plans to change the Constitution was to bring clarity to the current land reform laws, to make it a legal certainty that the state was able to expropriate land without compensation, and determine the conditions under which this could take place.

The goal, he said, was not to target private land that was being used, but to look at unused land, and state-owned land would be the first to be dished out. Nationalisation of all land was not on the cards.

Despite concerns of private ownership laws being flouted, Ramaphosa said the coming changes would make them stronger – but open them up for all South Africans, not just the few.

Illegal land grabs and occupations in South Africa have been spearheaded by the EFF, which believes that all land should be nationalised.

Read: May supports South Africa’s land reform – provided it’s done legally