The Development Bank of Southern Africa has provided a R3 million loan for the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development. This was used to build the water, sanitation, electrical, road, telecommunications and stormwater infrastructure. After the sites were sold, the revenue was loaned out again to people who qualify for a housing subsidy. This has given rise to an innovative way of mixing housing susidies, finance for bulk infrastructure and end-user finance within a mixed income development. Below is an email from Bernhard Wiswe of the Development Bank that reveals how significant the Lynedoch Development is for the Bank despite the tiny little loan that Lynedoch required – it was written after Sharifa Ismael, our accountant, managed to secure a differentiated rating system from Stellenbosch Municipality which distinguishes between sites sold at a discount to households who qualify for housing subsidies and households who paid market-related prices for their properties.
“Mark:
Thank you for the information, and congratulations to Sharifa and to all of your team.
The DBSA has been asked by Trevor Manuel to compile a document for the Minister, detailing DBSA funded projects which have had exceptional “developmental footprint”. Upon my recommendation, your project has been chosen as (the only) Western Cape Province project! Well done, and especially THANK YOU for having used the DBSA as your bank. Our evaluation unit will, sooner or later, do a detailed evaluation: hopefully by then houses will be going up. Did you manage to find funding for the building block technical research/accreditation?
Send more projects……….
Regards
Bernhard “