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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Banks are stampeding to secure land for housing development and Harare City Council is ready to work with them, the city’s mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has said. Addressing a Press conference on service delivery issues at Town House on Thursday, Mr Manyenyeni said CBZ, FBC, National Building Society and Homelink came forward with bankable proposals and the city was willing to facilitate construction of high-rise apartments.

In 2015, Government launched the Harare chapter of the National Housing Delivery Programme under Zim-Asset that targeted construction of 105 935 houses in Harare by 2018.

“The banks are eager to provide the much-needed services such as roads, trunk water and sewer lines and other facilities that contribute to a well-planned city,” said Mr Manyenyeni.

“We will continue facilitating so that we not only contribute to housing delivery, but employment creation and value addition. Millions of dollars have been lost to land barons on pieces of land and structures that end up being demolished because they are illegal.”

Mr Manyenyeni said unplanned settlements were mushrooming in the city, while revenue collection continued to decline.

He said council was collecting between $12 million and $13 million a month against a budget of $24 million.