THE Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities has set themselves a target of availing a minimum of one million housing units and stands as Government works on effectively reducing the national housing backlog.
This comes as the ministry has surpassed their target of housing stands that had been set by the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), where they are expected to have provided 220 000 housing units and stands by the year 2025.
In an interview on the Zimpapers Television Networks’ The Pulse last Wednesday, the Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, Hon Daniel Garwe revealed that as a ministry they were two years ahead of schedule in terms of meeting the NDS1 target.
“A lot of progress has been made since 2020 when the National Development Strategy 1 was put into place. The NDS1 directs us to provide 220 000 housing units by 2025, inclusive of fully serviced stands, by 31 March 2023, we had delivered 49 150 housing units and 136 850 serviced stands, which aggregates to 186 000 units, which means we are ahead of the target given. I can safely say we are two years ahead of schedule because 186 000 housing units relates to 86 percent of the programme set.
We have some ongoing projects as we speak, we have a lot of houses throughout the ten provinces, a lot of stands that are being serviced,” said Min Garwe.
The minister revealed that they were already in talks with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to see that they increase their target seeing that they had already surpassed their original target.
“I was talking to the Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube saying there is a need to revise our target upwards because we are saying that by the end of 2023 we would have gone beyond the 220 000 housing units, so it’s possible that by the 2025 target set by NDS1 we would have delivered a minimum of one million housing units, our target is in fact that by 2030 we don’t want to be experiencing any backlogs, be it local authorities or through the ministry.
“The housing backlog has heavily reduced with the deliverables we have achieved because we were initially looking at one million houses that needed to be delivered by 2030 but as you are aware the backlog is a moving target, of which we are saying that by 2030 we would have cleared that backlog,” said Min Garwe.
He stated that this milestone was achieved after they noted that the housing delivery programme was not a wholly Government programme alone, but it was a combination of Government through the National Housing Ministry, Government agencies like the National Building Society and other qausi-Government institutions and the private sector.
The minister also revealed that they had introduced a number of strategies to ensure that land and houses sold to the public remains affordable after realising that commercial rates being charged were out of the reach of many.
“The biggest cost driver in housing delivery has been the cost of land, even those land developers that we have engaged to develop State land at intrinsic value have been charging commercial rates, for land that they received from Government for almost for free, so the Government has now put a stop to the random issuance of land to developers.
“Government has now provided a facility where they enter into partnerships with developers, with Government’s contribution being affordable land, the developer comes with the equipment and financial muscle that is required and service the land, therefore since Government provided cheap land, the land thus becomes affordable when selling to the public,” said Min Garwe.
The minister revealed that they had further come up with various models meant to cushion the public and ensure affordable houses to the public.
“The first model we are looking at, which speaks directly to college leavers is the rental model and we are now speaking to the pension funds and the financial institutions to invest money into the development of flats, which will be specifically tailor-made to accommodate school leavers, college leavers and the young stars that have just started working, where we will be starting from a bed sitter, gravitating to a one-bedroomed flat going forward as one’s family grows.
“We then have the rent-to-buy model, we are aware that the mortgage system that we inherited from the colonial government was focusing on people who were employed by companies that were recognised by financial institutions which excludes Small to Medium Enterprises and those employed in the informal sector, so we have said, let us develop a model that is all encompassing, which is the rent-to-buy model,” he said.
The minister said the housing delivery programme in the country is premised on three pillars; these being affordability, sustainability and also modern, be it when one is purchasing a house or is interested in renting. – Sunday News
