Over 87% of Namibians in need of housing, earn too little to afford it

Urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa says Namibia’s housing crisis remains heavily driven by income inequality, with the overwhelming majority of those needing houses falling into low-earning income brackets.

Sankwasa said this in a speech read on his behalf by his special adviser, Boniface Mutumba, during the handover of 377 newly completed houses under the Mass Housing Development Programme in Windhoek on Friday.

Sankwasa revealed that 87.5% of people who need housing are low-income earners, making affordability the primary barrier.

“It is no secret that the majority of people in need of housing are low-income earners, the ultra-low and low-income groups,” he said. “These groups constitute 87.5%, with an average monthly household income of around N$10 000.”

The minister said despite the visible need and growing demand, many Namibians still cannot access formal housing due to high construction costs, limited financing options and a lack of collateral required by financial institutions.

He further noted that while attention is often placed on informal settlement residents and backyard tenants, the middle-income bracket also represents a growing segment unable to secure affordable homes.

“There is still a huge market of the middle-income earners who are in need of proper and affordable housing,” he said, urging the private sector, not particularly banks and developers, to invest in innovative pricing and financing models to close the gap.

With a shortage estimated in the hundreds of thousands, Sankwasa said the government plans to scale up delivery through the sixth National Development Plan, which aims to service 10 000 plots and construct 10 000 affordable housing units each year between now and 2030.

If achieved, that would translate to 50 000 serviced plots and houses over the next five years, a scale he described as necessary to disrupt the deepening housing backlog.

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