BHC to focus on flats, not single house units

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Wednesday March 31, 2010 00:00

Land Minister, Nonofo Molefhi, made these revelations at a stakeholders' breakfast seminar hosted by the Botswana Housing Corporation.

'We are moving towards high-rise development and will be looking at issues of costs with a view to building flats more and more, and we are insisting that government should also build flats for best utilisation of the little land that we have. We must appreciate that we have a problem with land. Expanding our residential territory means taking more and more fertile land that is needed for ploughing and pastures,' he said. Molefhi said that to deal with the problem of land, Land Boards would continue to reduce plot sizes.

'We may find in the passage of time that a single unit house is more expensive than a flat - the idea being to get more people to buy flats,' he said in answer to a question about what BHC was doing to provide affordable accommodation.

Minister Molefhi said that his ministry has decided that in the future, individuals will only be allocated one piece of land, as it was clear that land was not being used efficiently.

'Botswana has a most inefficient land-use system. Consider that one person may have a plot in Gaborone, another plot in Serowe and yet a third plot in Selebi-Phikwe while other people do not have land,' he said.

To address the aspect of affordability for some people, Molefhi said the BHC would introduce an Installment Purchase Scheme (IPS). The IPS will allow for people to pay an installment to the Corporation, while they stay in the houses. 'Those who will not qualify for a loan will have their monthly purchase convert to their installment,' said Molefhi. However, 'if you are a tenant and qualify for a bond, we will direct you to the bank,' he said.

He said while the scheme was delayed by lack of resources, plans to address this problem have been mooted, which include the floating of a P2 billion bond.

Another development that government will be looking at is building bachelor flats through BHC, especially for graduates. The flats will be for graduates whose salaries do not qualify them for a mortgage bond. However, Molefhi warned that those who qualified for the IPS, but were later found to be living beyond their expected income would be asked to vacate the house, as their affluent lifestyle would mean that they can afford a bank loan.