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Shelter Zimbabwe says it is producing the cluster homes against orders because the market has been hit by lack of disposable income

Property Reporter
Land developer, Shelter Zimbabwe, is constructing cluster homes at its housing project located within Rockview Park as per orders as disposable income on the market remains elusive.

Shelter Zimbabwe general manager Francis Mugandani, told The Herald Property Guide that the development of the cluster homes remains work in progress.

The project is located within Rockview Park, about 20km east of Harare with Sunway City to the immediate north and Old Windsor Park to the east.

The cluster stands are located and available within Rockview Phase 1C and they measure from 3 500 to 7 000 square metres.

The smallest cluster stand has the capacity of creating a minimum of six cluster homes with three bedrooms, kitchen, lounge, dining, bath and toiletry for either rentals or onward sale.

“We are producing the cluster homes against orders because the market has been hit by lack of disposable income. Its still work in progress for the project and the cluster homes are still available,” said Mr Mugandani.

Shelter Zimbabwe has also started selling residential stands at its Chizhanje housing project based in Mabvuku, which is expected to gross close to $20 million from stands to be sold. The project, which has 1 800 units, is a joint venture between Shelter Zimbabwe and the Harare City Council.

Water and sewer designs are not yet approved by the Harare City Council. Materials have been pre-purchased and awaiting the approval of the designs. The project will be delivered in 2018.

Shelter Zimbabwe has been appealing to Government for more land to develop in various cities and towns in order to assist in expediting implementation of Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

The local property developer also struck a partnership with the Epworth Local Board in developing a concept for Adelaide Farm.

Through the approval by the Department of Physical Panning, some 150 low density stands and 3 500 medium to high density stands are set for delivery.

Shelter Zimbabwe is a key player in the development of residential stands, providing state of the art housing infrastructure solutions, as it relishes the experience of having developed over 3 000 residential stands in Greater Harare.

Efforts by Shelter Zimbabwe come as Government has committed to providing 60 000 housing units by 2018.

Zimbabwe’s housing demand is estimated at 1,25 million units, which is well above what is available on the market. Government through Zim-Asset acknowledges that affordable home ownership is an essential characteristic of the concept of Zimbabwean citizenship.

There is increasing population density particularly in urban centres, therefore high rise developments including flats, that make maximum usage of the finite resource, land will be encouraged.

Harare City Council is in the process of providing decent accommodation and reducing the housing backlog pegged at 500 000 home seekers.

In trying to support housing development, Government is encouraging private land developers and community based programmes such as housing trusts and housing cooperatives to partner local authorities in housing development.

So far housing cooperatives have managed to construct close to 95 000 housing units between 2010 to 2015, an initiative that has worked to reduce the country’s housing backlog currently at about 1,25 million.