Housing in Inner City Johannesburg: A Media Brief (2026)

Change by Design

Johannesburg

Housing in Inner City

Johannesburg A Media Brief

Credits

Lead Authors

Beatrice De Carli, Valentina Riverso

Contributors

Jacqui Cuyler, Tamara Kahn, Léonardo Kahn, Edward Molopi, Lauren Royston

Design

Ottavia Pasta

Produced by

This report was produced by Architecture Sans Frontières UK, 1:1 Agency of Engagement, and the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, with support from the University of Sheffield Knowledge Exchange Fund.

Published by Architecture Sans Frontières UK

How to Cite

Architecture Sans Frontières UK, 1:1 Agency of Engagement and SERI, Housing in Inner City Johannesburg: A Media Brief. Change by Design Johannesburg (London: Architecture Sans Frontières UK, 2026).

The Story

Johannesburg’s inner city is home to tens of thousands of people living in informally occupied buildings: former offices, abandoned residential blocks, and properties left derelict by absentee landlords or the City itself. Estimates put the number of such buildings between 200 and 400. These buildings are routinely described in public discourse as “bad buildings” or “dark buildings”, language that frames them as problems to be eradicated. The data tells a more complex story. The Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into the Fire at Usindiso Building inspected approximately 1101 of these buildings and found:

• 5 buildings show clear evidence of being “hijacked.”

• More than 50 are privately owned

• At least 20 are owned by the City of Johannesburg itself.

Research by ASF-UK, SERI, and 1-to-1 (2022–2025) shows that many of these communities are well-organised, selfmanaging, and invested in maintaining their living environments, often without any formal recognition or support from local government. The systemic factors driving precarious conditions include absent landlords, lack of tenure security and inadequate urban governance.

Many of these communities are well-organised, self-managing, and invested in maintaining their living environments.

1

A fact-checking

Hearing Directly from Residents

Inner-city residents are not simply subjects of stories. They are knowledgeable, experienced, and articulate about their own lives and the systems that shape them. In many cases, residents of these buildings are highly organised and politically aware. Coverage that ignores their agency misses the most important part of the story.

Grassroots and support organisations can help facilitate respectful and safe access to resident voices:

• Inner City Federation (ICF): a coalition of resident groups advocating for housing rights in the inner city.

• Inner City Resource Centre (ICRC): a community-led organisation supporting grassroots organising and collective action

• Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI): a public interest law centre working on housing and socio-economic rights.

• 1-to-1 Agency of Engagement: a Johannesburg-based non-profit facilitating participatory planning and design processes

• ASF-UK: an international non-profit supporting community-led design and planning

These communities have often been subject to exploitative or stigmatising media coverage. If you are unsure how to contact them, please feel free to reach out to us.

Story Ideas

The following ideas are grounded in research findings and can support more varied, investigative, and solutions-focused coverage. We can help connect you with sources and material for any of them.

Home, Built Together

Tell the story of residents who have collectively organised to maintain, repair, or improve their building, showcasing the resilience and solidarity that sustains inner-city communities. ASF-UK’s Making Home report documents strong examples, including Argyle Court, Bertrams Priority Block, and Fraser House.

Tip: 12 of the approximately 110 Khampepeinspected buildings have a functioning residents’ committee — a concrete starting point.

Who Runs This Building?

Investigate how resident committees and task teams function day-to-day: from rent collection to fire safety, often without any formal support or recognition from the City. An accountability story about governance gaps and grassroots fill-ins.

More Than a Building

A portrait of daily life, culture, and relationships inside an informally occupied building. Challenges the narrative that these spaces are defined by disorder rather than community.

The Long Wait

A first-person account of what it means to live with housing uncertainty, told in a resident’s own words. The human cost of tenure insecurity, told from the inside. The reality behind ‘hijacked’ buildings Combine Khampepe Commission data with lived experience to build a rigorous, evidence-based counter-narrative to the “hijacked building” framing that dominates public discourse.

Who Owns These Buildings?

Follow the ownership trail. More than 50 inspected buildings are privately owned, and about half of them are abandoned by the owner. at least 20 are owned by the City itself. An accountability and property story with clear public interest. Interested in one of these stories? Get in touch and we can connect you with sources and supporting material.

A Few Reporting Notes

Terminology

You know your job. These are offered as useful context for a story area that has some specific terminology and common framing traps.

A few terms carry particular weight in this context:

• “Bad buildings” / “dark buildings”: These are people’s homes. “Informally occupied buildings” is more accurate.

• “Illegal occupants”: Under the PIE Act (Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998), occupiers in South Africa are “unlawful” not “illegal.” The distinction is legal and meaningful.

• “Hijacked”: A widely used but poorly evidenced framing. 5 buildings out of 110 inspected show clear evidence of hijacking. “Informally” or “Unlawfully occupied building” is more accurate in most cases.

Common Framing Pitfalls

• Covering only in crisis: Fires and evictions are newsworthy, but a diet of crisis-only coverage reinforces the idea that these spaces are inherently dangerous.

• Over-relying on official sources: City officials and property owners are important voices but offer a partial picture. Resident voices and grassroots organisations provide the expertise that shapes how policy is actually lived.

• Generalising across buildings: These buildings vary enormously in governance, conditions, legal status, and community. Khampepe Commission data can help ground stories in specifics.

• Xenophobic framing: Foreign nationals are frequently scapegoated in housing coverage. Africa Check has fact-checked specific claims worth consulting before repeating statistics about nationality in inner-city areas.

Key Resources

Want to explore this in more detail? Here are some useful resources.

Huchzermeyer, M. et al. (2023) ‘Johannesburg fire: There was a plan to fix derelict buildings’, The Conversation, September.

Africa Check (2019) ‘Unproven that Hillbrow, nearby areas are “80% foreign national”’, September.

ASF-UK and 1-to-1 (2025) Making home: Stories of maintenance and repair in inner-city Johannesburg

ASF-UK, 1-to-1 and IIED (2025) The right to home: Securing adequate housing in inner-city Johannesburg.

Usindiso Commission of Inquiry (2024) Report on Part (a)(i): Inquiry into the Usindiso building fire. Gauteng Provincial Government.

Usindiso Commission of Inquiry (2025) Report on Part (a)(ii): Findings and recommendations of the Usindiso building inquiry. Gauteng Provincial Government.

Wilhelm-Solomon, M. (2022) The blinded city: Ten years in inner-city Johannesburg. Picador.

For more information and follow-up, please contact: Edward Molopi, SERI

edward@seri-sa.org 082 590 9638

Change by Design Johannesburg

Change by Design Johannesburg is a collaborative initiative led by ASF-UK and 1to1 Agency of Engagement. Since 2023, we have been working alongside residents and community organisations in inner-city Johannesburg to advocate for community-led solutions for adequate housing.

Architecture Sans Frontières UK (ASF-UK) is a non-profit organisation working to transform cities through community-led design and planning. We amplify the voices of those most affected by urban change, building collective power for more just and sustainable cities.

www.asf-uk.org

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