Container houses solution to housing backlog

The housing backlog in the country is roughly 100 000 units with most people unable to build a conventional house.

However, to deal with the housing shortage, entrepreneur Stephanus Pombili says the solution lies in container houses. Pombili, provides these containers through his company, Stephanus SP Investment.

Although these container houses are costly, they are cheaper to acquire than normal housing. A standard container house costs N$30 000. The house can be custom-made. With a kitchen and dining area, it can be a double storey house. The costs would depend on features customers want included.

His company, situated at Rundu, also executes other types of projects countrywide including construction of emergency housing camps and camp sites for individuals or the private sector.

Pombili explained that the idea of the container houses was to provide alternative housing to low-income earners as a way of eliminating shacks, and do away with informal housing. He also added that their target market is the youth.

He said the main objective of his company is job creation. Although employment is on a contract basis, in 2015 the company employed 15 semi-skilled and unskilled workers from the community in which they operated.

“Also in 2015, at Bukalo village in the Zambezi region, my company employed over 20 people when we set up accommodation for construction workers at the mass housing project. However, currently we employ five people due to a lack of contracts and fewer customers because of the economic downturn,” the young entrepreneur added.

CHALLENGES

The misconception that container structures are inexpensive poses as a challenge because there are more processes included than just setting up the house. Processes involved are modifying the container, quality designs and carpentry, plumbing, and installation of electricity.

Pombili added that people need to change their mindsets about the housing industry and see container houses as alternative structures to conventional brick houses rather than just cheap options.

“We are still a small company doing custom-made work, and the more changes the customer has, the more it drives up the costs. The shortage of serviced land is also a challenge but once the government provides land to low-income earners, we would be able to make their container-home dreams come true,” he said.

FUTURE PLANS

He added that their main goals are to see every shack and zinc house demolished as an opportunity to provide furnished container houses, which are durable.

He further said they would like to see a reduction in government spending on bricks for government facilities such as schools, mass housing units, hostels, police accommodation, military camps and so forth, and opt for container structures which are easier to set up and are cost-effective.

“We want the government through local authorities to allocate land to the youth and low income earners so that we can build container houses for them. We would like to see all Namibians living in decent homes. We would also like to see the government collaborating with banks in order to provide quality houses to Namibians,” Pombili added.

A customer of Stephanus SP Investment, Thomas Masheke said he needed storage outside his house and Stephanus SP was able to assist him with a product that meets his needs.

“We looked into different storage buildings but decided on a storage container, for its durability. We contacted several container companies and quickly learned there are a lot of differences. However, Stephanus SP Investment was awesome in helping me to get a container that meets my needs and with an ultra-fast turnaround. Stephanus SP Investiment was not the ‘cheapest’ but he worked hard for us to get a quick delivery and at a fair price,” Masheke said.

Nakolute Toini, another customer said she was happy with the company’s service and recommended their services. “I did not know how the containers looked like initially because I have not really dealt with them before but I was happy with the service,” she said.

– charmaine@namibian.com.na, Twitter: Char_Ngatjiheue.