Backyard housing in Gauteng: an analysis of spatial dynamics

This article examines the phenomenon of backyard housing in Gauteng, a prominent driver of urban spatial change in South Africa’s housing market. Backyard housing in South Africa increasingly attracts the attention of policymakers because of the large number of households that this sector accommodates. Moreover, the role played by backyard housing in the overall small-scale rental-housing sector is significant, particularly in Gauteng where a large proportion of households rent their primary dwelling. Drawing on quantitative geo-demographic data from GeoTerraImage (GTI) (2010), Knowledge Factory’s Cluster Plus (2010) as well as StatsSA Census 2011, this article documents the spatial footprint of backyard housing in Gauteng and examines the implications of the findings for infrastructure service planning at the municipal scale.