Inner-City Transformation: City Hands Over Salt River Market Site for 970 Affordable Homes

The City of Cape Town this week officially handed over the flagship Salt River Market site to non-profit developer Communicare, which is pushing ahead with the construction of 970 inner-city affordable housing units. 

The project is a landmark execution of a public-private partnership model designed to bring working-class families back into well-located economic hubs. To ensure the project’s financial viability, the City of Cape Town contributed the 1.7-hectare parcel of land at a 90% discount, effectively providing a R95-million subsidy.

The completed Salt River Market precinct will feature a mix of 300 social housing rental units spanning seven storeys—subsidized for households earning under R22,000 a month—and 670 affordable market units across nine storeys. Overall, the development will cater to households earning up to R34,400 per month, with rentals ranging across unit types from R700 to R10,000 per month. Crucially for the local business ecosystem, the ground floor will integrate retail spaces, a public piazza, a day care facility, and a sports field. The development also honors the precinct's generational identity by fully restoring the historic Salt River Hall and reserving permanent retail space for the market's four long-standing fresh produce traders.

The milestone follows the resolution of a highly sensitive land clearance process involving roughly 70 informal families who had occupied the site's former horse stables. To avoid forced evictions, the City executed a phased, voluntary relocation strategy, offering families upgraded, serviced plots at an alternative emergency housing site known as "Ghost Town" in nearby Maitland. While nearly 50 families accepted the offer, a remaining pocket of 21 households resisted the final April 2026 vacate deadline due to escalating gang violence in the relocation area and sudden transport costs for children attending Salt River schools.

Communicare CEO Anthea Houston said a just and transparent relocation process was a crucial aspect of the project: “As developer, we stressed our desire that the City's relocation of the people settled on the site be undertaken in a manner that is fair, transparent and socially just,” Houston said this week in response to Cape Chamber queries. “To this end we were pleased to see that the municipality had moved about 95% of the people to land less than five kilometres away from the Salt River site. In addition, they had built roads and installed streetlights to enhance safety in the new location; built prefabricated units of either 26m2 or 52m2 for relocating families (depending on the household size); fitted each unit with electricity, running water and flushing toilets; and will provide each household with papers confirming that they have security and will not be relocated again.” 

“These provisions are unprecedented for resettlement in Cape Town and have considerably upgraded the living conditions of those who had been living in the precarious conditions on the Salt River Market site.” 

“Apart from paving the way for the upliftment of the degraded area around the market and the development of nearly 1000 new apartments, we hope this elevates the standards for similar relocations in the City,” Houston said.