Housing stakeholders convene to discuss sustainable affordable accommodation

Critical stakeholders in the property industry and related services gathered recently at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) in a conference hosted by BHC to discuss issues pertaining to the provision of sustainable affordable housing in Botswana. 

Held under the theme: “Promoting sustainable affordable housing in Botswana,” the two day conference provided a platform for panel discussions on issues of sustainable affordable housing to explore lessons and challenges from various industry experts.When officially opening the Conference, the Minister of Lands and Housing Hon. Prince Maele stated that the need for adequate and affordable housing remains a challenge which should be tackled jointly and collectively by all stakeholders across the societal and economic spectrum.The Minister noted that the thrust of the National Housing Policy is to facilitate provision of houses in partnership with stakeholders through more Government resources channelled to low and middle lower income housing groups and promote housing as an instrument for economic empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Presenting the Corporation’s experience in providing affordable housing in Botswana, the BHC CEO Mr Reginald Motswaiso pointed out that the Corporation’s  delivery of housing has by in large been driven by demand patterns.  He highlighted that the Corporation has and continues to develop housing to cater to various incomes groups of our population. 
Mr Motswaiso further revealed that the Corporation has received enormous amounts of criticism towards it pricing models for its range of products and it has been accused to abandoning its mandate of providing affordable accommodation to Batswana.

“What we often tend to ignore is the fact that BHC just like any other business competes for resources such as land for development and often bears the cost of providing infrastructure such as water and sewerage reticulation, development of roads and associated services, which we believe should be the responsibility of local authorities and other service providers,” said Motswaiso. A lot of issues around the provision of sustainable affordable housing were put into perspective to understand the real challenges and the Corporation had the opportunity to hear the experiences from similar Corporations of Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia, which presented on how they are confronting sustainable affordable housing challenges in their respective countries.

The conference was attended by among others, delegates from the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Private Developers, Mortgage Lenders, Land Board Secretaries, District Commissioners and Insurance experts who offered insights on the topic of discussion. It is expected that forums of this nature will be held more often as way of finding meaningful solutions to some of the challenges facing housing in general.