23 May 2016

Four lucky Batswana who purchased their leased Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) houses through the 2015/16 BHC Sitting Tenants Campaign have walked away with cash prizes from the campaign’s final draw.

BHC Sitting Tenants Campaign is a strategy intended to provide BHC sitting tenants with an opportunity to purchase the houses that they are leasing from the corporation, outright, in order to encourage property investment and home ownership amongst Batswana.

In his keynote address at the final draw of the 2015/16 BHC Sitting Tenants Campaign on Friday, BHC chief executive officer, Mr Reginald Motswaiso said the campaign was launched in March 2014 and the final draw marked the official end of the campaign.

As one of its many marketing tactics that were devised to encourage tenants throughout the campaign, Mr Motswaiso said the corporation had over the past two years, been running the campaign to encourage its sitting tenants to purchase properties they had been leasing.

“This, we believe was the right thing to do, as that would empower those Batswana through homeownership,” he said.

A house, Mr Motswaiso said was a good investment as it ‘goes beyond being a shelter, but a true reflection and measure of someone’s wealth or investment. We stand with pride knowing that owning a house is one investment that will see you through to retirement and even beyond’.

Botswana Housing Corporation, Mr Motswaiso said played a major role in the economy as it had been contributing immensely in changing the direction of real estate sector growth, which in 2012 recorded a contribution of 24.8 per cent in all the real estate sector activities.

This continuous growth of the property sector, he said was of paramount importance, as the economy of Botswana had somehow declined ‘and we know that through real estate we can contribute to up search of the growth of this economy’.

From the property market survey, Mr Motswaiso said it had been revealed that property loans were increasing at a rate slightly lower than what was initially expected, due to the credit squeeze and despite mortgage rates having declined.

The BHC Sitting Tenant Campaign value proposition and customer incentives included draws of P10 000 and P5 000. The first quarter draw was conducted at Mahalapye on August 8, 2015, the second quarter draw was held at Builders and Construction Expo in Gaborone on October 24, 2015, whilst the third quarter draw took place at Galo Shopping Mall in Francistown on February 20, 2016.

Therefore, the final draw, which was the fourth quarter draw, was in three folds. The first draw was for the fourth quarter that ran from January 1, 2016 to March 31, 2016 and two tenants who bought their leased BHC houses during that period won P10 000 and P5 000.

The second draw was a final one for all customers who bought from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016 and a lucky customer won a prize of P40 000. The third draw was by FNBB and one customer who bought through FNBB from March 2014 to March 2016 won P450 000.ends