27 Jun 2018

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Vincent Seretse says there are currently 3 460 eligible applicants on the Gaborone pool housing waiting list.

Mr Seretse told Parliament on June 26 that a separate list was kept for 63 people who were considered to be a  priority while 3 397 applicants were on the general list.

Minister Seretse said the priority list comprised expatriates, doctors and lawyers who were being given first preference in terms of allocation of available houses while the general list was for eligible officers who were predominantly on transfer from outside Gaborone.

He added that the inventory of pool housing in Gaborone currently stood at 2 295 units, out of which 636 were for government, while 1 222 were leased from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) and 437 from the private market.

He said the waiting list of 3 460 applicants against the available housing stock of 2 295 units depicted a shortfall of 1 165 units for Gaborone.

While the ministry endeavoured to address the shortfall, Mr Seretse said  the challenge was the rental budget, which was constrained as the rental for newer housing units including those from BHC exceeded the rental cap of P3 000.

Mr Seretse also indicated that the affordability levels of most public officers was also a constraint to acquire additional housing units from the market.

Further, he said presently, a total of 30 vacant houses in Gaborone needed maintenance, adding that maintenance of 11 units was ongoing while that of three had been completed.

He said bills of quantities for 16 houses were being prepared and works on them was expected to start next month.

Moreover, minister Seretse said that there were six dilapidated houses that were awaiting re-development.

The minister stated that due to budgetary constraints, the ministry had not been able to build new houses for public officers in Gaborone and other districts over the years.

However, he said that plans were underway to re-develop dilapidated houses in the next financial year, subject to budget provision.

Gaborone Central MP, Dr Phenyo Butale had asked the minister to state the inventory of available housing as well as that of the houses needing renovation.

Dr Butale also wanted the minister to state the plans in place to renovate dilapidated units and build new ones. ENDS