Expand access to affordable housing in South Africa

Divercity is a South African investment platform dedicated to rental affordable housing. Divercity develops, owns and manages affordable rental housing in centrally-located, neighbourhoods with good amenities in South Africa’s major cities. Their portfolio of 6,500 apartments provide low-wage earning households with quality accommodation in areas where they could not otherwise afford to live. This model has a considerable social, environmental and economic impact, while also creating excellent investment-grade assets for institutional investor.

Proparco invested €15m into Divercity, alongside 27Four, a Cape Town-based asset manager, in order to fund portfolio growth and balance sheet optimization. Through this investment, Proparco contributes to the reinforcement of the rental offering in South Africa, which has been identified as a key priority by the government given the severe housing backlog, and contributes to the resorption of spatial segregation the country has been facing for decades. This projects also provides Proparco with an opportunity to support the development of energy efficient buildings aiming at achieving an EDGE certification. 

The project is expected to support 1 800 local jobs and provide access to affordable housing for 31 000 people. The project is qualified to the 2X Challenge (meeting the leadership, employment and products/services criteria). The project will contribute to SDG 5 (gender eauqlity), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 13 (climate action).