NBS resolves Dzivaresekwa housing case

Herald Correspondent
The National Building Society (NBS) has resolved its dispute with the contractor on the occupation of houses at their Dzivaresekwa housing project.

NBS acting managing director Mr John Mapiye said an agreement was reached after an out-of-court settlement which resulted in the occupation of some of the houses.

“As per our previous update, the dispute with the contractor was amicably resolved through an out- of-court settlement,” he said.

“Accordingly, the contractor was awarded some of the housing units which he has since started to sell. This explains the occupation of some of the units at the Dzivarasekwa Project. The aforementioned court settlement has enabled NBS to take over the project.

“Hence work will be done to finish off all incomplete housing units and finalise all outstanding connections for water and sewer, which are critical to customers moving into their houses. We anticipate that from 1 July 2021 a phased approach will begin that will enable qualifying customers to take ownership of their fully completed housing units.”

Mr Mapiye said they were now working on the prices for the houses and the reassessment of eligibility.

“The finer details in this regard will be communicated directly to individual clients no later than the end of March 2021,” he said.

NBS has so far injected $33 million into the construction of 2 600 low-cost houses in Dzivaresekwa and Caledonia Valley.

This is the second scheme, which has seen NBS working with N-frays Construction Company, after unveiling 75 newly built low-cost houses in Amalinda high-density suburb in August 2017.

Recently, NBS introduced a diaspora mortgage plan to enable Zimbabweans living abroad to invest in real estate back home.

Under the package, the institution will allow Zimbabweans living outside the country to buy residential stands at zero deposit with an interest rate of 8 percent and one can start building within 10 years of repayments.

Ordinarily, mortgage lenders provide funding for completed houses as opposed to stands.