BHC sells half of peri-urban portfolio

Boitshepo Majube | Monday March 17, 2014 14:43

 

Last Thursday, the Corporation said it was increasingly able to attract buyers for its peri-urban properties, following its struggles in previous years.

At the launch of the Sitting Tenants Sales campaign, Marketing and Research Manager, Mookodi Seisa explained that their decision to build houses in peri urban areas was taken after thorough research and consultation with local authorities.

“In local areas we spoke to dikgosi and they gave us a positive feedback leading us to build houses in those areas,” Marketing and Research Manager, Mookodi Seisa said.

However, a BHC official noted that in villages like Mahalapye and Serowe they are competing with Land Boards that are giving land for free. “People obviously shun our houses for free land in those areas,” he said.

Amongst the issues that the corporation says led to the low uptake of their houses in the peri-urban areas is the economic meltdown, which befell the world.

“In areas like Francistown when we built those houses there was a mining boom in that city, and some of the companies had indicated their interest in our houses,” said Seisa.

He further noted that upon completion of those houses, recession started affecting the economy and companies that had shown interest were affected too.

“In the end they did not buy our houses as we had expected,” he pointed out. The BHC official also pointed a finger at the banking sector, which they say are not willing to assist those that have interest to buy houses in these areas. The corporation says only those that are willing to pay high charges are helped by banks, which is something that has deterred Batswana from buying their houses in these areas.

“We are asking the banks to reconsider loans to the value ration,” Seisa said.  Meanwhile, Real Estate Institute of Botswana President, Modiredi Maruping, encouraged BHC to up its prices, a move which he says would encourage people to buy their houses rather than rent them.

“The current rental BHC prices are too low and people are comfortable with them,” he said.

BHC has availed 1,528 houses to sitting customers to buy. On offer are 1,354 low cost houses, 141 medium cost houses and 33 high cost houses. The bulk of the houses to be sold under the scheme are situated in Gaborone and Francistown, both cities boosting 825 and 350 houses respectively.

The cooperation has however stated that flats, town houses and government-leased houses would not be sold under the scheme.

Explaining what selling to sitting tenants means, Seisa said some tenants have been renting BHC houses for over 20 years, and tenants with valid leases will be offered the opportunity to purchase their leased BHC houses