Social Equity in Housing: Addressing Systemic Barriers in Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg continues to grapple with entrenched spatial inequality, which is deeply rooted in the apartheid era, resulting in uneven access to housing that is affordable, adequate, and well-located. While significant research exists on South Africa’s housing challenges, there is limited systematic analysis of how scholarship on housing equity, particularly within the city of Johannesburg, has evolved. In this study, a literature review is combined with a bibliometric analysis from 1997 to 2024 to gain a broader understanding of the themes, authors, and patterns within this field. The results show that global scholarship on housing equity has expanded substantially since 2006, driven by urbanisation, the Sustainable Development Goals, and post-pandemic research interest. However, Johannesburg remains significantly underrepresented in global housing equity literature, with South Africa producing only two publications in the analysed dataset. Keyword clustering reveals strong attention to affordability, inequality, and policy themes globally, but limited focus on city-specific issues. Based on the findings, the study proposes a conceptual framework to guide future research and policy development on housing equity in Johannesburg, identifying opportunities for strengthening local knowledge production, improving policy responsiveness, and advancing socially just housing outcomes.