27 Jul 2014

Government is developing a broad inclusive strategy to ensure that housing needs in the country are adequately addressed, Ministry of Lands and Housing’s permanent secretary, Mr Thato Raphaka has said.

Mr Raphaka acknowledged that for some time, housing programmes had not been effective as evidenced by the high demand and long waiting periods for government housing schemes.

He was speaking during a workshop on the national draft housing strategy in Gaborone on July 24. To address the problem, he said, government continued to implement housing delivery initiatives to ensure that all Batswana were adequately housed.

Such programmes included Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA), turnkey development scheme, integrated poverty alleviation and housing scheme and destitute housing programme.

He said some public officers were also provided with housing as a condition of service as leasing from private housing market to augment government housing stock.

Mr Raphaka further noted that the draft strategy aims to develop strategies to improve access to housing finance, improve the implementation of the low income housing programme as well as develop the legislative framework for housing delivery.

The strategy, he noted includes proposals which include among others increased private sector participation, intensive land use and allocation of land for housing development.

“The draft will also focus on housing delivery as opposed to land allocation.”

Mr Raphaka further said a significant proportion of the population was inadequately housed and that the 2011 census had shown that 25 per cent of the households live in shacks and one roomed houses with insufficient sanitary facilities.

“There is an emergence on an un-served group which is neither eligible for low income housing programme nor can find suitable housing products in the market. This group comprises of people who earn between P3 000 and P10 000. The P3 000 will translate into about P120 000 yet there are no houses in the market for such small amounts,” he said.

Mr Raphaka said housing delivery was constrained by lack of readily available serviced land to facilitate development, prohibitive cost of construction, unaffordability, inadequate financial support for individual home development and lack of coordinated framework to guide housing delivery and lack of effective implementation strategies.

“The totality of the situation I have just shared with you clearly hinges on the critical issue of financing the delivery of housing, the issue that has brought us here today,” he said.

He further called participants to come up with an implementable document which would make an impact in the housing sector as well as strategies to make optimal use of redundant land and dilapidated buildings. ENDS