Botswana’s steep house prices worrisome

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members have expressed concern about steep house prices, which they say hinders a number of people from becoming homeowners.

The PAC members expressed this concern following the Office of Auditor General (OAG), audit report on the Ministry of Lands and Housing that indicated that a number of middle income people do not even have access to housing finance because they cannot afford it.

The OAG has pointed out that due to lack of affordability people are forced to lease houses from the market and pay exorbitant rents instead of having their own houses.

Commenting on the report Kanye North Member of Parliament (MP) Kentse Rammidi said that houses in Botswana are expensive including those by Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC), which can go for millions of pula in rural areas.

“This is a great concern that even graduates cannot afford to buy a decent house, because the prices have escalated due to shortage of housing,” he said.
However Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Housing Thatayaone Raphaka said his Ministry is currently working on a housing strategy that will try to tackle the problem of housing affordability and financing.

“We are aware that houses are a bit expensive in the country and we hope that the housing strategy will come up with programs that could indentify better house financing,” he said.

Raphaka said the Ministry will try to find out the main reasons behind the high prices of houses. But he noted that some of the causes include lack of serviced land and employees low income.

“Parliament need to put more money in land servicing to ensure that development is escalated as well as reduce construction costs.”

The PS said BHC needs a capital financing of P600 million in order for them to sell houses to the public through the tenant-purchasing scheme.

“Government has promised that the money will be injected to the corporation when the economy recovers, until then we will have to find other solutions.”