Construction of houses in Tanzania
Construction of houses in Tanzania has received a shot in the arm following plans to construct additional houses in the country.
Property developer Watumishi Housing Company (WHC) plans to start construction of additional housing units in the current financial year.
In the first phase, a total of 729 housing units were constructed in five projects undertaken in Dar es Salaam. Other projects were implemented in Morogoro and Mwanza regions.
According to Ms Mary Makawia, the WHC’s Public Relations and Sales Officer there has been a positive response from civil servants and they have received over 1,500 applications and yet only 729 units were available.
The official said that the second phase will involve projects to be rolled out in Dodoma Dar es Salaam, Tanga Coast and Arusha regions. She assured the servants of low cost affordable housing through the proposed ‘Nyumba Fund’ which will fund the implementation of the project.
Cost of land
Makawia also said they hope the government will intervene to lower the cost for land and construction materials so as to enable the company build affordable houses.
At the first phase, there were 369 and 104 housing units at Magomeni and Bungu, respectively, and another 474, 85 and 72 units in Kigamboni, Morogoro and Mwanza, respectively.
According to the official, the key problem witnessed in the first phase was the fact that several people didn’t have enough knowledge about mortgage financing. “We as well got complaints from majority of applicants that interests rates charged by banks and financial institutions were high and this has scared away many potential buyers,” she explained.
Civil servants who wish to get houses constructed by the company have four options which include mortgage financing from banks,paying cash, down payment as well as hire purchase which is currently applicable for the Morogoro project only.
Construction of more houses in Tanzania is seen as a major way of tackling a huge housing deficit facing the country.
