Tackling Gobabis’ housing problem

WHILE Namibia falls in the top 10 countries in the world with a large piece of land per person, the majority of the country’s citizens, especially the youth, remain “landless”.

And when one would have thought the phrase “We don’t have any serviced land to give you plots” is only unique to the City of Windhoek, it seems the universal answer at almost every town council all over the country.

Tired of getting that same answer from council, residents of Gobabis in the Omaheke region decided to meet the municipality halfway through an agreement that gives them authority to service land.

Omaheke Housing Association was created as an NGO to service the land for members and created a fund for that purpose.

In an interview, the association’s project manager, Reo Auchab, told The Namibian that more than 600 residents had paid membership fees of N$100 each.

“These are some of the desperate people who need decent low-income houses,” said Auchab.

To kick-start the project, about 120 members of the community contributed N$10 000 each for the town planning and environmental assessment for the land at the town.

According to the approved plan a total of 281 erven fit into the allocated land.

With all the contributed money having been exhausted on town planning, the association needed more for the costly land servicing programme.

According to Auchab, the association attended the Invest in Namibia International Investment Conference held in Windhoek and the Omaheke Investors’ Conference that both took place last year.

“We presented a proposal looking for investors to service the land and we managed to get offers and we settled for investors from South Africa,” he said.

Auchab said the investors, who are also contractors, agreed to pump N$25 million into the project and stressed that their agreement with the town council is that the association is not allowed to sell the plots.

“So the investors will build houses for the people in line with their home loans. Let us say one’s approved home loan is N$500 000, then they will build a house of that amount with no additional costs,” explained Auchab.

“Our members will get houses for only the amount that they qualify for and not through a developer who will add many other costs that will make the house more expensive,” he added.

Auchab said the association is now waiting for approval from the line ministries for the township plan before the project can start.

“We are grateful that the council accepted the challenge and took our offer to meet them halfway,” he said, adding that once the land has been serviced, the council will give them a discount of N$7 500 per plot.

Plot sizes range from between 600 and 1000 square metres, according to Auchab, who is a contractor himself.

“We are giving preference to the region’s inhabitants and our houses are for first-time home owners only. We only cater for people who are in real need,” he said.

He however expressed disappointment with the way things are being handled when one tries to bring investors into the country saying the requirement that everything has to go through a permanent secretary hampers the whole process.

“Most permanent secretaries are unavailable and even having a conversation on the phone with a PS is a challenge. You just cannot got through or they simply do not get back to you, despite promising to do so,” he stressed.

REGIONAL AFFAIR

The chairperson of the Omaheke Regional Council, Ignatius Kariseb, told The Namibian that the council has a plan that complements the Harambee Prosperity Plan and housing shortage is one of the main issues it wants to address.

“Housing is such a huge challenge in Omaheke region that we want whoever is coming to invest, whether it is a cooperative, a group of people or foreign investors, to provide affordable housing,” he said,.

He added that the council welcomed the Omaheke Housing Association’s great initiative of coming together as a group to solve the housing shortage for first-time home owners at affordable prices.

“It does not help to put up houses that are unaffordable,” stressed Kariseb.