Home ownership is a problem in Namibia. According to estimates by the Minister of Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Honourable Jerry Ekandjo in 2011 “..there is a backlog of about 300,000 houses and that 70 per cent of the population cannot access decent residential properties mainly due to issues of availability and affordability. This alarming situation calls for radical policy measures to restore the housing market.”
As a consumer activist it is not sufficient that I only
state the obvious problems facing Namibians, but that I also apply myself to
proposing solutions to these identified economic, social and cultural (ESC)
rights. Thus I would like to share two ideas, the first to help reduce the household
rental burden and the second to increase home ownership. Lastly, I suggest a
policy of purposefully creating mixed income neighbourhoods.
Subsidised rental housing
In earlier days most large employers provided subsidised
rental in houses and flats owned by the company. During the past twenty years
most of these companies have reviewed their ownership of property and sold off
their properties as “this was not their core business”. In this way, some of
them have “increased” profits by selling the properties (TransNamib is a
typical example), but at the same time decreased the salary value of their
employees. In addition, in those years most municipalities were also providers
of rental housing.
The social responsibility of companies and municipalities
must be encouraged. The fact is that employees with less worries, make happier
employees. The asset owned in the property by the company is also a positive
income for their balance sheet. The
Government can also encourage subsidised renting by companies if they provide a
tax exemption to these companies.
Rent to buy
I propose we develop 5,000 homes for lower income earners
proportionally throughout the country. The National Housing Enterprise (or
another appropriate body) should build quality houses valued at N$ 200,000 each
and make this available to civil servants and other employees who already
qualify for home loans, but cannot afford the present sky-high prices. Under
the rent-to-buy scheme the local municipality must supply serviced land at cost
price and allow the future home owner to pay off the land price over a five
year period.
If the land loan is fixed at 5% interest over five years for
a service plot valued N$ 50,000, the home owner would pay N$ 950.00 per month
to the Municipality. The repayment on the NHE built house would amount to N$
1320.00 over 20 years with a fixed interest rate of 5%. Thus the home owner
would be paying a monthly amount of N$ 2,200.00 for the first five years, and
only N$ 1,320.00 per month over the last fifteen years. In most cases, the home
owners would reinvest this additional monthly saving they are used to paying to
improve their properties.
Home ownership would increase not only the wealth of our
people, but would also increase their participation in their communities,
saving the authorities amounts otherwise used for policing etc. in areas where
people are not proud home owners.
Mixed Income Neighbourhoods
Mixed income neighbourhoods by definition include different
types of housing units such as flats, town houses and single family homes for
people with a range of income levels. In other words various price ranges and
housing preferences within one development. The town planners or even
government can put guidelines in place for the number of type of each housing
unit within a development to encourage integration of differing income levels
within a community. Such guidelines will go a long way to eliminate neighbourhoods
of concentrated poverty and combat residential segregation.
If nothing else helps, perhaps we will see the
implementation of what one of my friends proposed on Facebook: “Write a
petition and sue government for violating or neglecting its citizens the basic
right to shelter as provided for in the constitution.”
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@miltonlouw
