The Henties Bay Town Council has made cheap land available for residents and developers to address Namibia’s housing shortage and boost local development.
The 102 residential plots the council sold for less than N$2 000 were handed over to the low-income beneficiaries during a ceremony officiated at by minister of urban and rural development Erastus Uutoni at Henties Bay on Monday.
Henties Bay mayor Lewies Vermaak said the council’s primary goal is not to make a profit, but to ensure that everyone at the town has a piece of land they can call their own.
“The land [for low-cost housing] is already serviced, everything is in place for the people to build their houses. Home ownership for every citizen in the country is important because that is when you start making your people proud, because they can be part of society and not living in shacks,” said Vermaak.
The initiative aims to address the issue of overcrowded informal settlements by providing urban land that is big enough to accommodate proper housing structures.
Vermaak said this would help reduce the risk of fires that often occur in closely spaced shacks.
“We want to grow our town, and be an example for the rest of the country,” he said.
The first phase of the initiative saw 102 serviced plots sold at low cost, with the remaining 178 plots to be sold once servicing is completed.
About N$16 million went into the servicing of the land. The project was completed in three phases between 2019 and this year.
The mayor clarified that while the council is not looking to make a profit, its aim is to recover the cost of servicing the land.
In addition to the low-cost housing initiative, Vermaak said the municipality sold unserviced land at a discounted price (about N$15 per square metre) to developers for industrial purposes.
According to him, this decision was made to encourage development and to offset the financial burden on the municipality, which currently lacks the funds to service large industrial plots.
“Selling the land at a lower price will ultimately benefit the municipality in the long run, as the profits will come from the services provided to the developed land. Land that is lying in a local authority is worth nothing. Land only becomes valuable if there’s somebody living on the land or somebody is using the land,” he emphasied.
During the handover, Uutoni emphasised the government’s commitment to delivering affordable housing “to as many Namibians as possible”, acknowledging the shared responsibility of stakeholders within the housing sector. He noted that the government is unable to provide houses due to countless competing priorities.
Uutoni commended the Henties Bay council for implementing the project and urged other local authorities across Namibia to follow their example.
Erongo governor Neville Andre noted that Erongo region, the economic hub of Namibia, is faced with rapid urbanisation as people migrate in search of job opportunities and improved livelihoods. The increasing population puts a strain on local authorities to provide adequate housing, resulting in the establishment of informal settlements.
The Henties Bay initiative comes a week after the Swakopmund municipality gave cheap land ownership to 805 low-income residents of the town’s DRC informal settlement.