NHE not in competition with private developers – CEO

National Housing Enterprise (NHE) chief executive officer (CEO) Gisbertus Mukulu says the company is not in competition with private developers in terms of housing delivery, but rather works together with them to address the country’s housing backlog.

He says the media should not stoke competition between the NHE and private developers, because it hampers progress.
Mukulu was speaking at a media and stakeholder engagement at Ongwediva on Sunday.

“We are not in competition with any developer as NHE. We are all a collective, whether it is us or private developers or any other developers.

Everyone needs to bring their part to curb the housing backlog in the country. So, the media should not direct competition when it comes to housing. It should be a collective approach and it should be seen like that. That is one thing that hampers progression, because once you start saying that this one builds more than this one, then it is breaking what it is actually doing and if the media can also concentrate and focus, you will notice that all the private developers are not giving the same product. We are all giving different products but in the end we are striving to curb the housing backlog,” he said.

Mukulu also rubbished criticism of the NHE’s housing standards and the quality of materials used, saying the NHE has upgraded housing designs with exciting new features.

“We are going further and we are also in the process of redesigning our houses with a new collection of modern houses that are going to run for the next 10 years or so. When it comes to the cost of NHE houses, our houses are actually not expensive because our houses are of a high quality and the reason we are cautious about the quality of our houses is because our houses need to be bankable and normally the banks will not just finance any product that does not meet the standards. So, we make sure that they are of high quality and there is a lot that goes in it and we make sure that we use quality and decent materials. In actual fact, there are so many factors to consider when it comes to house pricing that determine the cost of housing and I can guarantee that our houses rank among the best,” said Mukulu.

He added that the NHE is facing a number of challenges such as lack of serviced land, dangerous flood prone areas, a lack of sufficient funding and the huge housing backlog.

NHE manager for corporate communication and marketing Mutonga Matali said the national housing backlog keeps rising due to urbanisation.

He said at the moment, the NHE housing backlog countrywide stands at about 100 000, while the backlog in the north stands at about 26 000.

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