NHBRC reform gains momentum as Western Cape developers push for industry changes
By Larry Claasen
THE Western Cape Property Development Forum (WCPDF) efforts to push through reforms at the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) is gaining momentum.
This followed the WCPDF sending an open letter to the Minister of Human Settlements Thembisile Simelane in February, calling on her to look into the poor performance of the NHBRC, which has the mandate to protect housing consumers and regulate the home-building industry by ensuring builders comply with prescribed quality standards.
According to the WCPDF, the council is failing at its job. It says it’s not only slow to give approvals, but also has unpredictable processes and that developers constantly have to put up with a system that’s offline.
These issues along with its poor communication, inconsistent regulation, excessive documentation, and inefficient inspections, have led it to ask the minister to intervene.
Despite the seriousness of its concerns, Minister Simelane has yet to respond to the WCPDF. The National Treasury, however, saw the letter and asked to meet with the association.
WCPDF chairperson Deon van Zyl said he was “heartened” that its issues with the NHBRC seemed to have been taken seriously by the National Treasury.
“We believe this follows on from the commitments made in March during Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech, in which he announced that unproductive and inefficient entities would be investigated by National Treasury, specifically those that were not delivering on their mandates,” he added.
Van Zyl said given the strength of its finances, the NHBRC was underperforming when it came to implementing its mandate.
“The NHBRC’s capital reserves as in its last 2024/25 annual report now sit at over R11,39 billion. It earned over R777 million in interest alone. Its revenue for the year sat at more than R2,426 billion. And yet, it paid out less than 0,7% in insurance claims from this revenue; less than 0,05% in research and development; and less than 1% on training. All of these are core to its mandate,” he said.
Aside from meeting with the National Treasury, the WCPDF has so far partnered with 11 other industry associations directly involved in property development and construction to deal with NHBRC issues. These include the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), the industry body for civil engineering professionals in South Africa (SAICE) and the Cape Chamber of Commerce
and Industry.
Van Zyl said: “The state of the NHBRC is a widely shared concern across our industry in South Africa, and it clearly resonated. Many of these associations have lodged their own complaints over the years and have tried in vain to meet directly with the NHBRC to discuss these concerns, to no avail to date.”
He said though the industry was not happy with the performance of the NHBRC, it did not mean they wanted it disbanded.
“It must be understood that the WCPDF and its industry partners do not call for deregulation of the NHBRC, but rather for efficient, non-duplicative regulation that genuinely protects consumers while supporting housing affordability and industry growth.”
Van Zyl said the sector wanted independent actuarial review of the NHBRC’s reserves and claims performance. It also wanted realignment of mandates between the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), and Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) and other related entities to eliminate duplication.
