95 year old Communicare is a leading social and affordable housing provider in the Western Cape with increasingly diversified property holdings. Our mission to provide sustainable affordable housing is supported by our social enterprise business model which allows us to grow while making a social impact. Our property development and property management activities in the residential and commercial property sectors provide surpluses that enable us to offer discounted rentals at the lower end of the residential rental market.
Our subsidiary, Mother City Housing Company, manages our properties regulated under the Social Housing Act, where discounted rentals are offered. Mother City Housing Company’s tenants thrive by gaining access to a variety of life-changing social development interventions available from Communicare’s social development arm, Vulamathuba Empumelelo.
Who is Communicare?
- Communicare is a social enterprise in the property sector.
- More than 3000 units in our portfolios are rented to a wide range of tenants.
- Our focus is on creating access to housing.
- A big part of our tenant portfolio is the social housing rentals – these are properties that are let at discounted prices based on specific criteria to tenants who are not otherwise able to access rental housing.
- Another part of our business is renting out properties at market related prices.
- We do this in a way that is sustainable for both the tenant and the company.
- We have over 90 years of experience and are specialised in creating socially responsible solutions to the ongoing housing crisis.
- We are not dependent on, nor are we an agency of the government.
Our history
Founded in 1929 to assist with the housing crisis then experienced by low income or unemployed and predominantly white people, Communicare was once known as the Citizens Housing League Utility Company.
Over many years the organisation assisted in creating housing solutions for the vulnerable, particularly the elderly.
Under the apartheid spatial policy, Communicare was also contracted to build housing complexes for coloured and black people.
After apartheid the company renamed itself Communicare. New board members and staff took the reigns and the company committed itself to housing access and socio-economic transformation.
Communicare has evolved into a social enterprise that creates opportunities for rental accommodation for many people who were not previously able to access affordable or subsidised housing.
Social enterprise model
Not just another landlord, Communicare provides rental housing to a wide range of tenants including a large portfolio of social rentals (properties rented at discounted rates). Tenants who pay market rates enable the organisation to achieve a steady flow of annuity income allowing for discounted rentals to families in need. This social enterprise business model makes Communicare the most sustainable provider of discounted rentals in South Africa. Communicare manages its properties in separate portfolios. While it provides thousands of tenants with discounted rentals, three properties have been funded through the Social Housing Regulatory Authority and are subject to its regulations.
The social enterprise business model is a good model for organisations who are needing to be sustainable in their efforts to do social good. In this circular economic sustainability model, elements of the business model are designed to generate a profit in order to sustain those parts of the business that are not designed to be profitable and have a social goal in mind.
This puts people and social benefit at the centre of business.
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