On Friday, 25 July 2025, Premier, Alan Winde, and Western Cape Minster of Infrastructure, Tertuis Simmers, unveiled the Founders Garden inner-city, mixed-use, affordable housing development in the Cape Town metro.
This development is the second of three major inner-city developments that will go to market this year, of which the Leeuloop Precinct, which will yield 840 housing opportunities, has already gone out to tender.
The over R2 billion Founders Garden development is the largest inner-city housing development yet and will consist of approximately 1476 social housing residential units and approximately 1162 open market units, bringing the total to over 2630 units.
Situated next to the iconic Artscape Theatre Centre, this high-rise, mixed-use development will include an Early Childhood Development Centre, among other public services and amenities. Importantly, this site is also within walking distance of the Cape Town Railway Station, the MyCiti Civic Centre Station and health services.
Minister Simmers said, “I am very excited to unveil the Founders Garden housing development today. It is the second of three major inner-city, mixed-use, affordable housing developments in Cape Town for this year alone, and the largest public sector housing development in the CBD. I am extremely proud of how the Western Cape Government is accelerating the delivery of housing opportunities. Just over 100 days ago, Premier Winde and I unveiled the Leeuloop development, also situated in the Cape Town CBD.”
“This development, along with the other two inner-city projects we have undertaken, is a model of infrastructure development we will work hard to replicate going forward. It is a perfect example of how we are approaching affordable housing development – always striving to bring services, housing and recreation closer to communities, while enhancing access to economic opportunities for our residents. We have only just begun. We will keep pushing forward, utilising partnerships and innovation to bring dignity and opportunity to affordable housing beneficiaries,” added Premier Winde.
“We are working tirelessly to utilise public owned land for the benefit of our people, and to deliver affordable, dignified housing opportunities where it is needed the most. And to us, it is about more than just housing. It is about turning public land into opportunity. We are ensuring that we deliver housing opportunities closer to places of employment, and close to transport and economic nodes because we believe that infrastructure must promote spatial justice, empower communities, and create job and economic opportunities for all,” Minister Simmers concluded
The tender to procure a developer and a social housing institution for the Founders Garden development has been advertised today, 25 July 2025.
Nibbler
Fun South African Fact: Mandela’s house on Vilakazi Street is now a museum. The man who the street was named after, Dr BW Vilakazi, was a poet, novelist and intellectual. He helped develop the written form of both isiZulu and siSwati and helped put together the isiZulu dictionary.
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