Story by Abigirl Tembo
THE government says it is on track to achieving its revised target of constructing a million houses by the year 2025.
The Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, Honourable Daniel Garwe was this Wednesday on an assessment tour of the Millennium Heights Housing Project in Harare’s Borrowdale West.
The massive project which has five blocks of flats is halfway through, with two blocks that have a combined 84 units having been completed while the third comprising 112 units is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Honourable Garwe believes the collaboration between private players and the government will ensure set national housing delivery targets are achieved.
“We are here basically to track the promises that developers had given us on delivering one million houses by 2025. Remember the initial target was 220,000 housing units by 2025, which we achieved in July this year. So, we set ourselves a new target of one million houses by 2025 and this new block under construction is adding to that. These two buildings that are completed were part of the 220,000. As you are aware, housing delivery is not a government mandate alone, it’s the whole of Zimbabwe approach, developers, banks, financial institutions, and pension funds are all working with the government to ensure that we deliver at least one million houses by 2025.
“We have got similar programmes in other parts of the country in Bulawayo, Gweru, and Marondera. We also have a programme that the government is financing where we are building flats in Dzivarasekwa, Marondera, and Gweru. In rural communities, we have started in the UMP Mtawatawa area, and we are building some blocks of flats. We intend to be doing this in the next five years. Every RDC must have some blocks of flats so that our citizens particularly civil servants that are domiciled in the country have access to affordable accommodation,” said Honourable Garwe.
Chief projects officer, Mr Mandla Ndebele gave an insight into the scope of the project which also exudes class.
“Millennium Heights Estate has a development of over 1,000 apartments. Basically, it’s a lifestyle estate where we can live, work, play, and shop. What we are currently doing is that we have got three blocks under construction. We have one-bed up to three-bed apartments. That’s the scope of the development,” he said.
Under the National Development Strategy One Housing Delivery Cluster the Second Republic is on a drive to reduce the housing backlog which stands at more than 1,2 million units
