John Muyamba
Rundu
The National Housing Enterprise (NHE) has started financing houses built under the Mass Housing programme in Bukalo after banks refused to extend mortgages to the houses in the area. Cabinet has asked NHE to finance the houses so that the houses, which until now are unoccupied, would find buyers.
The directive allowed NHE to bond the properties that were struggling to sell in the village councils. Ordinarily, NHE only finances social houses.
It is in the Bukalo Village Council, in the Zambezi region, where banks refused to finance 57 credit-linked houses. However, the process of selling these properties is progressing fairly well not only in Bukalo but also in other places that struggled to get financing from the banks, said NHE’s senior communication and marketing officer Mutonga Matali on Friday.
“To this end, I am pleased to inform you that all 29 social houses have since been sold and handed over to clients while 43 out of the 57 credit-linked houses have been allocated accordingly and the loan approval process is currently underway and we expect this process to be finalised in due course,” Matali said.
At Bukalo, all 29 social houses constructed are two-bedroomed houses, while there are 47 credit-linked two-bedroomed houses and 10 three-bedroomed houses.
“There was no delay with regards to social houses,” he said.
“However, we experienced some delay in allocating credit-linked houses due to the reluctance by some commercial banks to finance properties in a village council set-up but the process has since picked up after NHE was given the mandate to finance these properties by Cabinet,” Matali noted.
The Bukalo project is part of the Mass Housing Development Programme and it commenced with other projects being executed in various towns across the country.