Online Reporter
Patrick Chitumba [email protected]
l (GCC) has announced plans to sell 204 dual-occupancy houses in Mkoba and Mtapa on the open market after legally recognised sitting tenants failed to take up Government offers to purchase the properties under the home ownership scheme.
In a recent public notice, council said the houses — earmarked for transfer to tenants decades ago — remain unsold as occupants have not acted on purchase offers first made soon after independence in 1980.
Responding to inquiries on the proposed sale of the houses, GCC spokesperson Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee confirmed the development. She said plans are underway to place the units on the open market after legal sitting tenants did not take up the purchase offers extended under the Government housing ownership scheme in the 1990s.
“The local authority is not selling but intends to sell the houses on the open market because the legal sitting tenants are not taking up the offers to buy these houses as per the Government scheme that empowered people to own houses in the early 1990s,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee said the council exercise has been ongoing for years, but many tenants have failed to respond. Instead, some are subletting the properties for profit, while others have allowed illegal occupants to move in.
Under the scheme, she said, the houses were offered to sitting tenants at discounted rates. Council added it has not undertaken maintenance on the properties on the expectation that they would have been purchased by now.
“If the current occupants do not take up the offer, the houses will be opened to any willing and able buyer at open market value. The council said the exact amount to be realised could not be determined yet, as final prices would depend on market valuations,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee said the disposal of the properties is expected to benefit both the local authority and residents, with proceeds earmarked for new housing projects while also contributing to urban renewal and giving the areas a “new facelift”.
“Ownership of the houses will empower beneficiaries, as with title deeds, they will be able to borrow loans from the banks to undertake other projects that will benefit them and their families,” said Ms Chingwaramusee.
She reiterated that first preference will be given to sitting legal tenants, and if they decline, the opportunity will be extended to the general public.
“The move is part of efforts to curb illegal occupation and subletting, which the council said had undermined the original purpose of the home ownership scheme introduced to empower residents after independence,” she said.
