Low-cost housing initiative takes off in Dolam, Katutura

THE completion of a low-cost house in Katutura’s Dolam area within only two weeks of construction starting has residents there curious about a new initiative by two building constructors.

The men, Peter Mbutu and Bronwyne Awaseb, this week saw the completion of their one-bedroom show house, describing it as an example of what they plan to do for 53-year-old Monica Kapetua within the next two weeks. Kapetua, a mother of seven, lives with four of her children in a shack in the Goreangab Dam informal settlement.She was recently picked by the City of Windhoek’s Housing and Properties department to benefit from plans to provide low-cost housing to people who need it most.Construction of her new house is set to start today, on the plot she already owns and on which she has built the shack in which she and her children currently live.Kapetua’s home will be built at no cost to herself, but after that, those who qualify to benefit from this project will look at a total bill of around N$49 500, Mbutu says.When The Namibian yesterday visited the show house that Mbutu says will soon be called Eumbo-Letu (Our Home), people were walking in and out of the house, evaluating the work done.”They’re quick.I literally watched it go from foundation into a building,” one woman remarked as another enquired how she could go about acquiring one of these homes for herself.The houses are built using what is known as the Modiform building system, whereby moulds, in the form of the finished house, are filled with a type of mortar (a mixture of sand, cement, water and lime).No bricks are used, and therefore the process is faster than traditional building methods.By yesterday morning, 340 people had added their names to a list of people interested in benefiting from this new idea.”But we want people to be clear.We’re not accepting any deposits or any such things right now.We want to work with the authorities, the municipality and the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) as much as possible,” Mbutu says.Hopefully, he says, these authorities will be able to help them identify the correct people to benefit from the project, which he says is part of his partner and his social responsibility.The two men work at separate construction companies, but plan to register the name Eumbo-Letu for this low-cost housing project they are embarking on.Mbutu currently runs MGM Properties, while Awaseb operates from Paul Van Harte Investment.The new project is going to be run in conjunction with a South African-registered company, Adcrete Construction.”The profit from this won’t be big, but because we do other projects in more up-scale markets we can afford to live with a smaller profit here.People are always saying housing is becoming unaffordable, but that’s not the case.The cost of a house is just up to those in the industry,” Mbutu says.”What we’re trying to see is more ownership in the communities from where we came from.I have property which I rent out and I can tell you that is not ideal for the tenant.Where do their kids go when they die?” he asks.The men have warned interested people not to fall for a common trick by people who may urge them to pay deposits on the houses they want built.”We’re trying to keep the rich people, who might want to buy a bunch of these properties and rent them out to the people who most need it, out of this,” he says.Mbutu presumably hopes that his involvement in this new venture will work out better for him than the last partnership he was involved in, which made headlines roughly two months ago.In that case, Mbutu parted ways with his fellow directors at the recently established Idalom Housing Developments.He claimed that he quit because his partners insisted on getting Ralph Blaauw on board, because of the latter’s involvement in the Social Security Commission and Avid Investment scandal a few years ago.His partners denied this, however, claiming Mbutu resigned because they offered him shares in a construction company working under Idalom, and not in the mother company itself.Kapetua, a mother of seven, lives with four of her children in a shack in the Goreangab Dam informal settlement.She was recently picked by the City of Windhoek’s Housing and Properties department to benefit from plans to provide low-cost housing to people who need it most.Construction of her new house is set to start today, on the plot she already owns and on which she has built the shack in which she and her children currently live.Kapetua’s home will be built at no cost to herself, but after that, those who qualify to benefit from this project will look at a total bill of around N$49 500, Mbutu says.When The Namibian yesterday visited the show house that Mbutu says will soon be called Eumbo-Letu (Our Home), people were walking in and out of the house, evaluating the work done.”They’re quick.I literally watched it go from foundation into a building,” one woman remarked as another enquired how she could go about acquiring one of these homes for herself.The houses are built using what is known as the Modiform building system, whereby moulds, in the form of the finished house, are filled with a type of mortar (a mixture of sand, cement, water and lime).No bricks are used, and therefore the process is faster than traditional building methods.By yesterday morning, 340 people had added their names to a list of people interested in benefiting from this new idea.”But we want people to be clear.We’re not accepting any deposits or any such things right now.We want to work with the authorities, the municipality and the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) as much as possible,” Mbutu says.Hopefully, he says, these authorities will be able to help them identify the correct people to benefit from the project, which he says is part of his partner and his social responsibility.The two men work at separate construction companies, but plan to register the name Eumbo-Letu for this low-cost housing project they are embarking on.Mbutu currently runs MGM Properties, while Awaseb operates from Paul Van Harte Investment.The new project is going to be run in conjunction with a South African-registered company, Adcrete Construction. “The profit from this won’t be big, but because we do other projects in more up-scale markets we can afford to live with a smaller profit here.People are always saying housing is becoming unaffordable, but that’s not the case.The cost of a house is just up to those in the industry,” Mbutu says.”What we’re trying to see is more ownership in the communities from where we came from.I have property which I rent out and I can tell you that is not ideal for the tenant.Where do their kids go when they die?” he asks.The men have warned interested people not to fall for a common trick by people who may urge them to pay deposits on the houses they want built.”We’re trying to keep the rich people, who might want to buy a bunch of these properties and rent them out to the people who most need it, out of this,” he says.Mbutu presumably hopes that his involvement in this new venture will work out better for him than the last partnership he was involved in, which made headlines roughly two months ago.In that case, Mbutu parted ways with his fellow directors at the recently established Idalom Housing Developments.He claimed that he quit because his partners insisted on getting Ralph Blaauw on board, because of the latter’s involvement in the Social Security Commission and Avid Investment scandal a few years ago.His partners denied this, however, claiming Mbutu resigned because they offered him shares in a construction company working under Idalom, and not in the mother company itself.