More housing stands to be availed in Bulawayo

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is continuing with its push towards reducing the housing backlog in the city after the availing of land for a further 578 stands.

This comes after the local authority completed the servicing of 526 stands that were availed to various contractors under a new concept where they work with developers with their own funds, instead of the traditional pre-sale concept.

The local authority has had an on and off relationship with private developers having at one point been forced to set aside their engagement in housing projects, instead opting for a pre-sale strategy where they sell off stands to beneficiaries and then use the money to develop the stands.

Over the years, council has also suffered a number of losses after various property developers abandoned their sites with more than 3 000 stands that were being developed by private developers left uncompleted with the local authority forced to take legal action to resolve the impasse.

In a call for expressions of interests by the city's Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, he said the local authority has identified 460 residential stands in Umganin and 118 stands in Emganwini.

"The City of Bulawayo is inviting competent and reputable property development companies, financial institutions or pension funds with development finance to express interest to undertake the development of either, 460 residential stands in Remaining Extent of Umganin or 118 residential stands on portion of Remaining Extent of 1198 of lot 400A Emganwini.

"The developer is expected to have development finance which they will use to fully service the stands and would recoup their investment from the proceeds of the sale of the stands.

The stands are to be sold once servicing has been completed.

The developer will be expected to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and have it approved by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) prior to commencement of servicing of the stands," reads the notice.

The Umganin stands have an average size of 300 square metres while the Emganwini average stand size is 200 square metres.

Mr Dube said the servicing scope of works to be done include water reticulation, sewer reticulation, roads Infrastructure and public lighting.

"Interested companies must provide information indicating their qualification to perform the services, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, proof of financial resources and availability of appropriate skills.

"Council reserves the right to reject applications from property development companies, financial institutions or pension funds that are currently involved in housing development projects on its land which are less than 50 percent complete in terms of servicing," said the Town Clerk

Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni said so far the new housing development strategy has worked wonders and they look forward to working with more local developers with capacity and funds so as to improve housing delivery in the city.

"Council has now extended the strategy to apply to new sites that have been offered at remainder of Emganwini, just after Bellevue Shopping Centre, on which three sites with a combined total of 2 400 stands, will be developed under the same strategy," said Clr Mguni.