A housing institution built to last, not a developer built to sell.
Magna Carta takes its name from the founding idea that rights, once written down, must be honoured. Our work is to turn public and private investment into homes that stay affordable and well run for decades, and to account for every rand and every tenant relationship.
Why a non-profit owns the homes
Social housing in South Africa is rental housing for the part of the market that subsidy housing and the banks both miss: households earning between R1 850 and R22 000 a month.
Under the Social Housing Act 16 of 2008, the homes are developed and owned by accredited non-profit Social Housing Institutions, so that capital grants from the state and the rents tenants pay are locked into keeping the buildings affordable and maintained, rather than distributed as profit. The institution is regulated by the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), which accredits it, approves each project and monitors it thereafter.
Magna Carta was formed to be one of those institutions. Once accredited, and once a first project is built, we will hold the homes, manage the tenancies, and answer to our tenants, our funders and the regulator for how we do it. Today we are preparing the application and the systems; the dated status panel says exactly what exists.
What we stand for
Our identity is deliberately institutional and calm. In writing and in practice we are plain, warm and precise, and we do not overstate our stage of development.
Trustworthy
We publish our status and our governance, and we say what we cannot yet do as clearly as what we can.
Dignified
Homes people are proud to bring their families to, run with respect for the people who live in them.
Transparent
Allocation rules, rent setting and finances are documented and open to scrutiny by tenants and the regulator.
Grounded
We will develop only inside declared restructuring zones, on sites that pass our screening criteria and the regulator's.
Community-minded
Tenants are members of a community, not units in a register. We build the relationships as carefully as the buildings.
Who we are, on paper
| Registered name | Magna Carter Community Development NPC |
|---|---|
| Registration number | 2020/538848/08 |
| Legal form | Non-profit company (NPC), Companies Act 71 of 2008 |
| Working name | Magna Carta Social Housing Development. The name the institution is adopting. A CIPC name reservation is in progress; the registered name has not changed yet. |
| Registered office | 16 Invicta Road, Thandanani Office Park, Midrand 1685 |
Our regulatory status and the stage we have reached are kept in one dated panel on the governance page.
How we are governed
Board, committees, policy suite and the decisions each is responsible for.