Housing remains priority

Housing remains priorityCity of Windhoek promises over 4 000 affordable houses Up until 2022, the City of Windhoek has undertaken to place a firm focus on housing, promising more than 4 000 units. The City of Windhoek aims to provide 4 043 affordable houses in the next five years through projects such as National Mass Housing and the Build Together schemes.

According to the City's strategic plan for 2017 to 2022, during the current financial year, 470 affordable houses will be provided with the support of local government, while by 2020/21, the City aims to have built 1 311 houses.

In the next five years, it has set a target to have availed 2 087 serviced plots in all land-use categories and out of this, 430 serviced plots will be availed during this financial year and 1 474 serviced plots during 2019/20 financial year.

In 2016/17, there were 300 serviced plots availed for all use categories which include residential, commercial and institutional uses.

According to the strategic plan, the City will also avail 2 167 serviced plots through private partnerships in the next five years. A total of 529 plots will be made available during this financial year and 900 plots in 2019/20.

According to the strategic plan, to address the current demand for serviced land, the City of Windhoek will require 500 hectares for future land delivery and development during the strategic period.

The strategic plan says housing and land delivery have been identified as a top priority by the municipality.

“However, it must be noted that the City's targets are purposefully conservative during this strategic period given the current financial, human and capital, technological and expertise constraints.

“Nevertheless the City remains committed to achieving its targets given the critical nature of housing and land delivery. Our challenge is thus to be innovative, think out of the box and foster a platform for creative consultative and cross-functional pollination of ideas from all stakeholders,” according to the CEO of Windhoek, Robert Kahimise.

According to the City's housing and land delivery objective, a single integrated waiting list for housing and land delivery will be compiled, while new housing developments will encourage urban densification and require all housing units to be designed to be adaptable, extendable and able to densify over time.

Furthermore, vacant land inside the urban edge is to be utilised through infill initiatives, while unused land owned by state entities should be released for new housing developments.

The City of Windhoek says the promotion of mixed-use retail and residential development along key nodes and transport corridors should be considered, while housing developments should be directed towards transport routes so that residents can have easy access to public transport, employment and social amenities.

Meanwhile the City says its Spatial Development Plan (SDF), which sets out future areas for expansion of residential areas, community facilities, industrial business, resort development and other activities, will cease to exist by the end of 2017.

A new SDF is targeted to be completed by 2018 and will include the densification in existing townships, the further infill of existing vacant lots and the redevelopment of older buildings before new areas for town expansion are considered.

ELLANIE SMIT