Since the end of Apartheid in South Africa, government policies have increasingly led to the formulation of programs that provide property titles to low-income households. This was done with the intention of providing the poor with assets as a definitive measure of financial success (Lemanski, 2011). The transformation of human settlements and spatial development in order to create conditions for more humane and environmentally sustainable living and working environments was a key component of the country’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Therefore, massive social housing programs, that would provide previously excluded populations (black South Africans) with newly built homes through a variety of channels were supposed to be the means of financial inclusion.

But as with many post-apartheid financial ‘inclusion’ programs, these models have contributed to inequality and excluded a vast number of people, and as a result not met the intended target. Those excluded include key public sector workers and laborers who face common, but divergent constraints (either considered too rich to qualify for a housing subsidy, and yet too poor to afford newly built houses available in the market). This market is called the gap market. This exploratory qualitative case study of Khayelitsha Township in Cape Town South Africa investigated the challenges faced by the current housing market in tailoring home ownership products for households earning between R 3,500 and R 15, 000 (US $ 250 – $1, 100) a month (the so called ‘gap market’).