The housing betrayal
Mmegi Editor | Tuesday November 1, 2016 12:21
Home-seekers, particularly those looking for rental property, are painfully aware of the numerous vacant BHC houses scattered across urban areas, particularly in the older neighbourhoods of Gaborone.
According to the Minister, the capital has 159 such houses, of which 109 have either been sold to individuals (and are thus awaiting occupation), or are due for demolition under the Densification Programme. The programme is part of the BHC new policy of building upwards, thus increasing the number of housing units in a single space.
The other vacant 50 in Gaborone are said to be awaiting water connections before being let out for rental.
The same picture subsists to varying degrees across Francistown, Serowe, Mahalapye and Gantsi.
In a situation where land is inaccessible, particularly in urban areas, and where private developers enjoy free reign in pricing their assets, the Minister’s explanations on the vacant houses may be true, but they are unhelpful.
Those same 50 houses could accommodate up to 200 people, using the standard family size of four, a significant number in a city stretched to the limit by a population jump faster than its development growth. It is a fact that not everyone will be able to build or purchase property; many will have to rent.
The Housing Pitso earlier this year heard that more than 50% of Batswana earn below P2,200 and even if they are allocated land, they end up selling it as they cannot afford to develop it.
As Molefhi’s predecessor noted at the Pitso: “I don’t mind too much when you don’t have a piece of land, but you have to somewhere to sleep”.
In the area of rental, the BHC has long been a buffer between desperate home-seekers and unscrupulous, unregulated property owners whose “take-it-or-leave-it” approach violates the rules of the free market they benefit from.
In this regard, the BHC’s management of its assets leaves a lot to be desired, as it would appear the parastatal’s financial stress of recent years has impacted heavily on maintenance of existing properties.
Nearly every year, the BHC CEO, Reginald Motswaiso has lamented how the freeze on their rentals since 2004, set against upward inflationary pressure on maintenance costs is badly affecting the corporation.
Molefhi needs to go further and lay out how government, as the BHC’s sole shareholder, intends to help the corporation provide affordable housing to Batswana and, indeed, recover value from its older assets.
In addition, it is high time a national conversation is had on statutory measures for the rental market, including the establishment of a Rent Board as well as the modernisation and improvement of the idle Rent Control Act.
Today’s thought
“We should put emphasis on housing than land allocation and when we are talking land, we mean serviced land.”
– Prince Maele