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Business Reporter
CBZ Bank has agreed to partner the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to build over 600 medium density houses to the tune of $6,2 million.

According to latest council minutes, the financial institution was keen on financing the housing project in Mahatshula suburb.

“As a result, a project proposal to partner council in the development of 670 stands in Mahatshula medium density residential area was put forward for the bank’s consideration where council had indicated that the project cost had been $6,2 million,” reads part of the minutes.

“CBZ had since written back and indicated that they were prepared to partner council and would finance the project. The bank was ready to embark on deliberations to finalise the partnership details.”

Housing provision remains a hurdle for the council, which is battling to tame a housing backlog of more than 100,000.

BCC said the partnership was a welcome development to the city as partnering a financial institution would complement other housing delivery strategies like the presale scheme where council had partnered with beneficiaries.

“The advantage of partnering with a financial institution was the ability of such institutions to avail lump sum finance at project inception to enable the project to be executed without any financial hitches and thus could have the shortest possible life cycle.

“This had the advantage of hedging the project against external forces,” it said.

In light of CBZ bank’s response, the local authority said it recommended approving the partnership for the project.

It is hoped that the two parties would meet to discuss finer details of the partnership and finalise the agreement.

The city has a housing backlog of over 100,000.

Against this background, BCC has a four pronged housing delivery strategy that included the engagement of financial institutions.

In the past, the local authority engaged private developers whom it said had failed to deliver.

“As an improvement or development from private developers, council had also used the pre-sale strategy. The pre-sale strategy had been a success in the sense that council had been partnering with individuals to raise the funds for servicing,” said council.

However, despite the successes in getting serviced stands the delivery system has had some challenges in the payment of the stands.

“The superstructure development had been slow due to lack of participation by the financial institutions. The department had deliberately continued to craft proposals and sent to financial institutions like the National Social Security Authority, CABS and CBZ Bank …”