Ease housing shortages, Africa told

Locadia Matsvaire Herald Correspondent
African governments have been urged to come up with interventions to cope with increasing housing demand in urban areas. The board of the African Union for Housing Finance (AUHF) in a statement after its annual general meeting held in Mauritius last week said that large-scale infrastructure investment continued to attract people into urban areas.

The AUHF annual general meeting was attended by over 100 delegates from over 20 African and European countries.
Africa’s housing need is growing quickly and demands much greater attention than it receives by policy makers and investors, said AUHF. UN Habitat reports that 46 African cities are now larger than one million people and 17 of the world’s 100 fastest growing cities are in Africa.

“These new urban residents all need housing and as economies and incomes grow, there is a real business proposition in responding to this demand.”

AUHF said investment in housing remained limited, compared with other forms of infrastructural investment.
“Not only is housing investment dwarfed by investment in large scale infrastructure projects such as energy production, transport and logistics, it also falls behind investment in commercial construction,” said AUHF.

It urged policy makers and investors to put in place mechanisms that could ease the situation. The AUHF urged governments, the private sector and development financiers to focus on the performance of Africa’s housing markets.

“Governments are also called to service land available for housing developers for specific target markets and to be involved in overseeing partnerships, ensuring each player takes appropriate roles, while the government provides proper legislative innovation,” AUHF said.
The AUHF members pledged to engage their respective governments to have tax, monetary policies, housing and land policies which influence the growth and performance of housing markets.