The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) says the current building requirements by local authorities are making the delivery of low-cost housing in Namibia challenging.
The Fund said the requirements are ruining efforts to reduce the country’s housing backlog.
“We have only certain materials and standards that are allowed by local authorities, and this has an impact on the overall cost of the housing units that are being produced,” GIPF outgoing Principal Officer and Chief Executive David Nuyoma told The Brief.
“Cement, brick, and all of these are specified. If you use something different, you may not get your house certified. So these things have an overall impact on how much a house will cost. I know also now you find houses starting from N$400,000 in a local authority environment, town and that is actually some of the cheapest you can get. Absolutely. So, and that includes your land, whereas, in some areas, land alone is more than a million, a small plot of 800 square metres.”
He said the current building requirements do not make a provision for alternative building materials for house construction.
“We need as a country to challenge ourselves on using various models and housing material and accept them to bring the cost of housing provision down. Otherwise, that challenge will remain there almost forever. So is it fair to say that there is a need for a review in the current local authority requirements,” Nuyoma said.
“When I was CEO of DBN, we even tried to find alternative materials and what they call, faster to build and cheaper and that is when we realised. No contractor will use them because they will not be accepted by a local authority. So that is a key issue that perhaps should become central to the conversation on how to provide houses in a significant way.”
Nuyoma said the fund’s investment in the Osona village had made a significant impact on housing delivery in the country, while also providing a return for the GIPF.
“We have investments that really yield excellent results and housing is one of them. I have seen that in some areas, for some reason, it has been difficult, but with us, it has been one of the most rewarding from a societal giving perspective, but also from a return perspective. We are very pleased with that. All our houses, for example, in Osana are constructed when they have a buyer. We don’t build before there is a name. That is the philosophy we have been following, and it works. For us, it has worked, and we have been able to make headway with it,” he said.
The project, which will eventually include 15,000 residential units, is one of the largest and most inventive housing initiatives, with close to 1,500 units already completed and sold to new owners over the last seven years.
This comes as Minister of Urban and Rural Development Erastus Uutoni says Namibia still has a long way to go to make housing more affordable for all.
The Minister noted that the current minimum price of houses built under various housing programmes was out of reach for most people.
According to the Association of Local Authorities in Namibia, Namibia requires about 50,000 housing units to be constructed countrywide in the next 10 years to solve the country’s housing crisis.
