Harare appeals for land Dr Mahachi
Dr Mahachi

Dr Mahachi

Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council has appealed to Government to provide more land for housing development so that it meets the Zim-Asset quota of 105 000 housing units by 2018.
Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said the city did not have enough land to meet the target set by Government under its economic blueprint Zim-Asset.

“Your council is looking at development of integrated housing estates to ensure that every housing development has the necessary amenities such as schools, shops, recreational parks and optic fibre connections for smart metering.

“Most importantly, our appeal to Government is for the provision of more land for housing development to allow us to meet our Zim-Asset quota on housing provision,” he said.

Harare had entered into partnerships to achieve the Zim-Asset quota, one being the CABS partnership that would see 3 104 houses being constructed.

The city’s partnership with the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe, will see the construction of 567 housing units while at Glaudina a council employer assisted housing scheme will see 1 300 units constructed.

Under pay schemes, council and individuals will develop 3 000 stands in Budiriro, Kuwadzana, Eastlea and Chadcombe.

The city has also parcelled out over 6 000 stands to housing co-operatives, among other programmes.

Dr Mahachi said Harare was also working hard to expedite the processing and approval of building plans.

“We are setting up a dedicated inter-departmental team that convenes weekly to approve building plans.

“The city is also actively updating property valuation roll to capture all the properties added to the housing and building stock in Harare in the last decade.

“We call upon property owners to come forward and register their properties,” he said.

He said one of the worrying factors affecting the growth of the property market was the cost of construction materials, saying Zimbabwe’s cement was twice expensive than that from South Africa while bricks were three times more expensive.

Labour costs were also not commensurate with the work at hand.

“The question is how you come into this property matrix and make a positive mark in national economic development.

“My call as we parcel out quotas to different housing developers in fulfilment of Zim-Asset is that (may) the property developers provide quality and low priced housing that provides convenience and stimulus for business to be able to recruit and retain most of the productive employees,” he said.

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