The Sunday Times reported that housing director-general Mpumi Nxumalo revealed that from April next year, the pace of housing delivery would be virtually doubled and thousands more people would become eligible for subsidies to address a backlog of about 2,4-million homes.

It said that, in a revolutionary move to end apartheid urban planning, renovated apartment buildings and new multistorey complexes would be built near established suburbs, where families from different income groups would live together.

Sapoa CEO Brian Kirchmann says government's plan to bring low-cost housing to expensive residential areas had "merits and demerits" and the association wanted to debate various issues with government including which areas government had in mind for placing these new developments.

Kirchmann says building low-cost housing in expensive suburbs is not done in the rest of the world.

"That kind of development needs responsible and healthy debate and careful thought."