Polycare ready for Nam housing crisis

THE German company Polycare Research and Technologies that promoted the low-cost housing initiative launched as part of the Invest in Namibia conference last November has found local partners.

At the end of last year’s international investment conference in Windhoek, Polycare Research and Technologies chief executive officer Gerhard Dust told The Namibian that he was looking for private partners, as the company works on a franchise model.

This week he told The Namibian that after the launch of PolyCare Namibia on 16 August in Windhoek, they are now finishing the factory building and producing the machines, moulds, etc in Germany.

The Polycare houses which could cost N$250 000 each do not need any water to build.

And the housing model uses a special computerised mixing and dosing machine to mix sand (even desert sand), polyester resin and a hardening agent into a stable compound.

Dust told The Namibian in an interview this week that in mid-December, they will ship all necessary equipment and by mid-January 2018, they will start production in Namibia.

“The location for the first instalment (with just one producing machine) is Brakwater. With the expected growth rate we will later install more machines either at Brakwater or Okahandja or wherever the demand is big enough. One machine will produce up to two houses per day,” he said.

Dust, who has support of urban and rural development minister Sophia Shaningwa, said there are private investors/developers who want this technology.

Polycare Namibia is divided equally between three partners.

“The majority stake in the company (66,66 %) is owned by Namibians. One group are construction companies and civil engineers (Namibbeton and KL Construction with the two directors Achim Lück and Nico Badenhorst). The other group is represented by Guinas Investment with the two directors Jerome Mutumba and Pauline Haindongo. (Guinas is representing Swapo),” he said.

Given that recession had hit the Namibian construction industry hard, Polycare said they plan to build affordable houses in Namibia, adding that “If you do not invest in times like this, the future will never come and everybody will run with the crowd.”

Dust said this compound material is put into a mould, and hardens within 20 minutes and a house takes only two days to construct.

The material used to build the house is mixed in a big kitchen dough-making machine, as if making a cake, and is then put into a special mould.

According to him, instead of baking to harden the “brick”, a chemical process is used instead.

“The main ingredient is sand (87%). And what you get is an environmentally friendly, extremely hard and robust brick,” he explained.

Dust said the innovative product has met all the European Union housing standards, which are higher than those for Namibia.

For this product, Polycare won the Entrepreneur in Residence of the European Union award.

Even though PolyCare’s technology provides the basic wall structure for the house, it uses the roof from a company named Salzgitter Bauelemente, which comes with solar panels attached to it to provide energy to the house.

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