FLISP housing subsidy: How you can own your own home

Article summary

• FLISP housing subsidy allows earners in a low bracket (R3 501 — R22 000 per month) to earn a government subsidy for their home loan.
• You can apply with your financial institution or with a home loan comparison service such as ooba Home Loans.
• The FLISP housing subsidy can be used as a deposit or extra repayment, improving your chances of home loan approval.

Thanks to the government provided FLISP housing subsidy, your dream of home ownership can become a reality, even if you’re in a low income bracket.

Here we cover:

1. How to apply for FLISP
2. How the FLISP housing subsidy helps you get a home

1. How to apply for FLISP

You can apply with your financial institution or with the help of a home loan comparison service.

Before you can apply you have to meet the qualifying criteria, which are:

• Your income must range from R3 501 to R22 000 per month.
• You must be a South African citizen with permanent residency in South Africa.
• You must not have received a government housing subsidy before.
• You must be married or cohabiting OR single with financial dependents.
• You must be over 18 years old.
• You must not have owned a fixed residential property before.

Note You used to have to apply for a home loan and have it approved before you could apply for FLISP, but as of April 2022, this is no longer necessary. You can now use other sources of finance to apply, including:

• the beneficiary’s pension/provident fund loan
• a co-operative or community-based savings scheme, i.e. stokvel
• the Government Employees Housing Scheme
• any other Employer-Assisted Housing Scheme
• an unsecured loan
• an Instalment Sale Agreement or Rent-to-own Agreement

If you meet the criteria, applying through ooba Home Loans expedites the process because we submit the documentation on your behalf and monitor the application.

Here’s the process if you go through ooba Home Loans

The process can be expected to take around 7 days.

How the FLISP housing subsidy helps you get a home

The subsidy ranges from R30 001 to R130 000, depending on your income. The lower your income, the higher the subsidy.

For more detail, see the chart below.

The subsidy will help you acquire a home loan because:

• You can use it as a deposit.
• Use it as an extra repayment on your home loan (use our Extra Payments Calculator to determine how much the subsidy will reduce your loan term and monthly repayments).

Either approach will make the bank more likely to approve your home loan and secure you lower interest rates.

So when you contemplate home ownership but assume you can’t afford it, remember that you have the option of the FLISP housing subsidy.

Are you interested in applying for FLISP? Get all your questions answered, such as whether you qualify, how to apply and how FLISP can be used to acquire your first home.