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.