More land for Bulawayo housing

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) said it is committed to availing more land for servicing into residential stands building on the success of the Public Private Partnerships model to reduce the housing backlog which is at 130 000 in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

The local authority has previously faced a horrendous experience in dealing with private developers who used to be engaged through a pre-sale method where they would sell land to the developers some of whom fail to develop the housing units.

However, in the new strategy the local authority engages private developers who then use their own funds to develop the stands with the land still belonging to the council.

Speaking at the commissioning of 118 stands in Emganwini that were serviced by TCI international, Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni said the delivery of  housing was one of the city's critical and strategic roles.

The project is the second one the company has successfully commissioned in a space of 11 months.

Clr Mguni said as a city they believed that decent housing was a key fundamental right for every citizen that offers dignity to residents.

"To achieve the key programme and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the focus for the City of Bulawayo has been to provide housing settlements that show coordinated planning that will meet its objectives and satisfy beneficiaries. In housing development, we believe that our key success factors require us to operate as champions for appropriate new housing provision, as active facilitators and enablers in this provision and as innovators seeking new solutions and overcoming barriers.

"We believe that decent housing is a key fundamental right for every citizen and it gives dignity to citizens. Bulawayo has a housing stock of 165 000 units and key in ensuring that we match the demand and housing stock availability is the densification strategy where our new layouts provide for 40 percent of the land to have high-rise building development," said Clr Mguni.





He noted that the development of high-rise buildings will help alleviate challenges of accommodation and address the rising demand for housing, with the local authority eager for solutions that bring a resolution to the housing and accommodation challenges.

"The challenge has been in achieving the set targets especially in light of the economic challenges and the low disposable income that urban dwellers have. This is not new as we have had a long-term trend where there is a mismatch between housing supply and demand and this can be noted with the housing waiting list which is over 130 000 and continues to grow on a daily basis.

"The challenges of housing delivery have been worsened by the lack of affordable development loans for the local authority and the unavailability of loans and mortgages for the potential housing owners.

"This has continued to exacerbate the gap and also lead to overcrowding in urban areas," said Clr Mguni.

The Mayor said the PPP strategy had worked well for the city in the past few years and had increased housing delivery targets. Bulawayo Metropolitan Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Judith Ncube said with rapid urbanisation being experienced globally there was a need for relevant organisations and institutions to ensure that there are planned interventions that cater for the demands of a growing urban population.

"We need to deliver sustainable, modern and functional housing. The NDS 1 further notes that we need to have a holistic approach in planning for housing settlements and one such strategy is the use of public, private partnerships that the city has employed in this project in a bid to reduce the housing backlog," said Minister Ncube.

Echoing the same sentiments, the Acting Town Clerk, Mr Tennyson Mpunzi, said the local authority will continue to explore developmental initiatives that help build Bulawayo and that will assist in closing the gap between housing provision and the demand for housing.

"As outlined in the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) the City of Bulawayo currently uses the public private partnerships where we call for expressions of interest for developers or financial institutions with development finance to assist us in servicing the land towards housing provision.

"The project being commissioned is one such project and I am proud to say that this has been working well for the city in the past few years and this has assisted in meeting the housing needs of the city as evidenced by this ceremony," said Mr Mpunzi.