The premise of the incremental housing approach is that low-income households can, and have, transformed their rudimentary housing into substantial dwellings over time. This possibility legitimises the government's role as one of supporter rather than provider of housing, and initially underpinned South African post-apartheid housing policy. Yet, in both housing implementation and political messaging, the government's current housing role, while unclear and prevaricating, is strongly skewed towards that of provider. Using the historicisation analysis method, the article reassesses the first round of use of incremental housing policy approaches internationally, and interrogates why they failed. It explores the possible adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both the fiscus and housing delivery, and argues that pragmatism must force South Africa into reconsidering a policy shift to the incremental housing approach post-COV