Harare City Council is seeking out investors for the construction of more than 3,000 residential flats and shopping malls on land that has been reserved around the city. The City Council is also promoting an urban renewal programme aimed at regenerating old suburbs such as Mbare and Highfields among others.
Mr. Michael Chideme, the Council’s Corporate Communications Manager stated that the Council has flat sites in Harare with the capacity to produce 3,424 units.
He further expounded on this by stating that in Ardbennie there are 3 stands measuring a combined 2,5 hectares, Crowborough North has 2 stands measuring 2,95 hectares while in Glen View 7,2 hectares will be developed in 2 phases of 2,7 hectares and 4,5 hectares respectively.
In Mabvuku, the Council has 24 stands, in Tariro-Hopley 3 stands while in Donnybrook there is 1 stand measuring 1,3 hectares.
Further to this, Council is developing more than 12,000 residential stands in efforts to improve housing delivery. The stands are in various stages of development in areas such as St. Martin’s, Tafara, Eyestone, Budiriro and Mufakose among others.
Mr. Chideme stated that Harare has a high demand for shopping malls and as such he invited investors to develop commercial shop sites around the city. The proposed sites for the shop sites are Derbyshire (10), Donnybrook (33) and Tariro-Hopley (4).
Council is proposing selling land for flat units to developers or establishment of partnerships for the projects.
Under the urban renewal programme it was reported that a number of areas need renewal such as Mbare hostels.
There is available land in Mbare for the construction of new apartments. Once these new apartments are constructed, decamping will be carried out where inhabitants from the existing apartments will be moved to the new apartments. The old flats will either be brought down or renovated to family units.
Through this a new lease of life will be brought to Mbare and the other targeted old suburbs.
During the course of the year, Harare will also conduct a major review of its General Valuation Roll to incorporate new areas which were developed in the last 10 years.
This is in compliance with the law, which states that the General Valuation Roll must be reviewed or updated every 10 years and for Harare City Council that falls due in 2017.
