This paper explores the commodification, commercialisation, and financialisation of
low-cost housing in post-apartheid South Africa through the systems of provision
(sop) approach. The sop approach is based on the idea that sector outcomes emerge
as a result of relations between agents which are themselves embedded in
historically evolved social and economic structures and processes. The paper charts
the evolution of housing policy, and its production and consumption highlighting the
various agents and processes involved. It demonstrates that choices made, both at
the end of apartheid and subsequently, have led to a commodified and
commercialised approach to housing provision. This has interacted with the general
financialisation of the South African economy resulting in the embedding of access
to housing within financial markets, with highly unequal, albeit contested, outcomes.