In the Business of Doing Good: A case study on social entrepreneurship within the small-scale rental sector in South African townships

Sammanfattning: Housing crises have become a global phenomenon, including in South Africa. Neither the South African government nor the market have been able to sufficiently address the growing housing deficit across the nation, especially not in the affordable rental sector. Social entrepreneurship within the South African small-scale rental sector – higher-quality brick and mortar backyard rental units that are developed by township homeowners to access a new stream of income, has recently been identified as a potential solution to the lack of housing. Using the case of Bitprop, a social enterprise, and its developments in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, this thesis explores the impact of social entrepreneurship within the small-scale rental sector. The qualitative investigation revealed that Bitprop’s small-scale rental units create income for homeowners and enable them to grow their asset base as well as provide higher quality affordable adequate housing for tenants. The developments also contribute to the formalisation of the sector and township neighbourhoods, generating positive externalities. The findings suggest that social entrepreneurship within the small-scale rental sector can create a positive impact by providing a financially viable and scalable approach to assisting the much-needed delivery of affordable housing in South Africa while also creating wealth and formalising areas of the largely informal backyard rental sector. Further research is needed to understand the negative externalities of higher-quality builds and thus higher rental rates on displacement and gentrification.