The Gobabis Municipality plans to sell 100 residential plots worth more than N$8.8 million to Mbatjiua Construction CC to help address the town’s housing backlog.
A municipal notice published this month shows that over 13.4 hectares of land in Extension 6 has been earmarked for the construction of residential houses.
The municipality is now seeking public objections and has given members of the public until 10 August to submit them.
The plots, measuring between 1 202 and 2 272 square metres, are priced at N$62 per square metre, with selling prices ranging from about N$88 000 to over N$104 000.
The notice states that the municipality intends to sell serviced and unserviced immovable property by private treaty to Mbatjiua Construction CC and the Namibia Training Authority (NTA).
Municipality spokesperson Frederick Ueitele says Extension 6 is an established township zoned for single residential houses, but the land remains unserviced.
“Mbatjiua Construction is the only entity that applied for the area to be serviced and developed through a private treaty,” he says.
Ueitele says the municipality lacks the financial resources to service the land itself and considered the company suitable because of its experience in housing development at Gobabis.
“The demand for housing is very high and the municipality has always encouraged the private sector to partner with the council. We trust this project will go a long way in reducing the housing backlog at Gobabis,” he adds.
The proposed sale has drawn criticism from Gobabis councillor Wynand Lukas of the Right to Shelter Foundation.
He says the erven were not advertised because the municipality planned to source funding to service them, but Mbatjiua came forward with a proposal it could not refuse.
Lukas says residents raised concerns over allocating such a large portion of land to a single developer, arguing that the company has previously failed to provide adequate infrastructure in developments it undertook.
“We are not in support of allocating 100 unserviced plots to a sole applicant. The notice also fails to clearly inform the community that these plots are being sold,” he says.
He argues that residents waiting for residential land should be prioritised over investors and questions why a single company should receive 100 plots.
Lukas says the council requested information on how many local residents have applied for plots. He recommends stricter payment conditions to ensure the developer provides roads and other services.
“There is already another extension developed by the company where there are no proper roads, no street lights and the sewage network is also poor,” he says.
Mbatjiua Construction owner Blacky Tjingaete has rejected the criticism, saying his company was being unfairly singled out.
“Why am I singled out? I am not the first Namibian to be allocated land. That land is also unserviced,” he says.
Tjingaete adds that other private companies had previously received municipal land without attracting similar objections.
He says the development is aimed at providing affordable housing opportunities for low-income residents who struggle to access land.
Meanwhile, the municipality also intends to sell 3.6 hectares of land to the NTA for general industrial purposes at a purchase price of more than N$4.9 million.
The industrial land is priced at N$270 per square metre, with erven sizes ranging from 2 000 to 4 000 square metres and prices ranging between N$322 000 and N$555 000.
