Our government regards the provision of affordable housing to the majority of our people in a serious light.
And to this end the Swapo Party has indicated it has refined its policy on housing and encourages the development of housing, specifically for the poor majority. This focused policy is to ensure that the multitudes condemned to backyard tenancy by exploitative banks and opportunistic property developers can own houses. Like we have said in the past, the current housing crisis is man-made in the sense that some unscrupulous ‘developers’ buy huge tracts of land that they resell at outrageous prices to people desperately in need of houses. The harsh reality has been that prohibitive house prices artificially inflated by ruthless capitalist elements are so unaffordable they prevent the masses from owning houses. Consequently there has been a mushrooming of shacks that have become a ubiquitous phenomenon, particularly in urban areas.
Government on the other hand has put in place policies and programmes to ensure the homeless majority have decent lodgings. One such revolutionary programme is the mass housing programme about to be rolled out. It does not take rocket science to figure out that the reason the masses endure a thousand indignities in overcrowded slums is the fact that local banks are to blame, because they charge exorbitant interest on housing loans. House prices should not be artificially inflated above what the house is actually worth in real terms and low interest rates on housing could help the homeless majority to have roofs over their heads.
Initiators of alternative construction methods, who are offering decent homes at affordable prices, should be encouraged and be capacitated, if we are to put an end to the current profiteering. The National Housing Enterprise (NHE), and by extension the municipalities, should sift through such applicants and publicly bestow recognition on the companies that have passed the quality test by apportioning land for the construction of such houses, so that Namibian citizens can start acquiring affordable housing. Further, there is a need for transparency, as it does defeat the purpose when government comes up with mass empowerment policies and programmes such as mass housing, only to have people in power clogging the system for the sole purpose of enriching themselves. In the same vein, citizens ought to be protected from greedy chance-takers masquerading as property developers touting dubious alternative construction methods and materials for building cheaper houses only to rob many honest and hardworking men and women of their hard earned cash. To prevent the element of fraud genuine low-cost housing developers should be separated from the scammers. Of course, there those who are genuinely concerned in helping and they deserve support. If we are to roll back shacks that have become part of our urban landscape we should embrace, research, develop and implement the concept of low-cost housing in a serious and deliberate manner. Unlike the profit-driven conventional house builders the very idea of having a house costing between N$30 000 and N$60 000 could help many Namibians to have decent houses they could call their homes. And this makes sense considering the fact the price for a tiny match-box house in the central regions is a staggering N$292 438. While a medium house costs N$538 633 and a large house in the same region sells for N$1.3 million and houses in the suburbs at the coast are in the same price bracket. It costs an arm and a leg to service a mortgage for any house in Namibia. So, when companies come up with offers to build houses for less than N$100 000 this offer should be taken seriously, because it will go a long way in alleviating the present national housing crisis. Having said that, government should do everything in its power to ensure the majority have access to decent and affordable housing.