Billionaire Johann Rupert and others gave 24,000 people houses and land in South Africa

Billionaire businessman Johann Rupert has recapitalised the Khaya Lam land reform project, which will help provide thousands of underprivileged South Africans with land and housing.

Between January 2013, when this project started, and June 2026, Khaya Lam has completed 24,000 title deed transfers.

On 2 July 2026, the Free Market Foundation (FMF), which runs the Khaya Lam initiative, announced that Rupert has recapitalised the project.

This was done through Rupert’s Reinet Foundation and Remgro, who have been partners of the project for around a decade.

Khaya Lam, Xhosa for “My Home”, is an initiative launched by the FMF to assist communities in converting their apartheid-era leasehold titles to freehold titles.

Through the Khaya Lam project, properties are transferred from municipalities to legal tenants, converting dead capital to dynamic capital.

To execute this, Khaya Lam partners with funders, municipalities, and conveyancers to convert “township” tenants into homeowners at no cost to residents. 

“This process provides families with title deeds to their rental properties, allowing them to build generational wealth,” the FMF said.

The FMF’s first title deed handover event took place in 2013. By January 2023, Khaya Lam had hit the 10,000-transfer milestone. 

Now, by June 2026, Khaya Lam had completed over 24,000 transfers. “This work has benefited thousands of disadvantaged South Africans,” the FMF said.

Rupert has played a significant role in achieving these milestones, with the Reinet Foundation and Remgro donating R25 million each between 2018 and 2024, funding more than 18,000 transfers.

“The Khaya Lam project seeks to ensure that all South Africans, regardless of race or income level, are invested in a policy environment where private property rights are secure from state interference,” FMF CEO David Ansara said. 

“Insecure tenure has historically been one of the main causes and drivers of the immense poverty our society suffers from. Dignity is out of the question when the place in which you live is not securely yours.”

Head of Khaya Lam Terry Markman provided an example of how the project has helped underprivileged South Africans gain ownership of their homes.

“Just recently, for example, our oldest-ever recipient, born on 15 July 1919 and therefore 106 years old when she finally received a title deed, walked into the event hall unaided, ready to receive security for her property,” he said.

“The FMF thanks Johann Rupert, the Reinet Foundation, and Remgro for their invaluable continued support,” the organisation said.

Photos of Khaya Lam deed handovers