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Nqobile Bhebhe, Senior Business Reporter

DIVERSIFIED financial services group, Old Mutual, says it will continue to partner with the Government and local authorities in scaling up housing development across the country to ensure decent accommodation for all.

Housing delivery is one of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) pillars hence the need to address the inadequacies pertaining to infrastructure and providing citizens with access to affordable and quality settlements.

Under NDS1 the housing delivery pillar is expected to deliver 220 000 housing units by 2025, through collective efforts from stakeholders and all parties involved in human settlements deliver.

Old Mutual is one of the key partners having developed numerous housing units countrywide in the past years including the recent Nkulumane and Pumula South project in Bulawayo.

The financial services group completed the development of a total of 1 082 housing stands in Pumula South and Nkulumane suburbs in 2018.

To that end, Old Mutual chief executive officer, Mr Sam Matsekete, told Business Chronicle in an interview that they were keen on complementing Government efforts in more housing delivery programmes.

“We have developed stands in Nkulumane and Pumula in Bulawayo and the stands were on flexible arrangements where customers had an option to buy the developed and serviced stands,” he said in an interview.

“What we saw through that project was that most people preferred to buy the stands and seek assistance to fund the actual development.”

Mr Matsekete said the projects were well received by both the local and diaspora market and the group will continue to look for opportunities.

“There were diasporans who wanted to access land and develop it. It’s a concept that we saw achieving goals for our customers in a flexible way.

“Elsewhere, we have developed core houses, housing units that are habitable and we talk of schemes that are up to 3 000 units at a time,” he said.

“All the efforts that we undertake to develop stands and houses we believe that it adds to complement Government efforts in resolving the housing backlog.”

The Old Mutual boss said their group has been undertaking housing projects as part of the private sector efforts. 

He also said they were also engaging with the responsible ministries and discussing where they are looking to develop the next project and how the giant company could assist.

“Therefore, some of the partnerships end up being implemented with local authorities. What is important for us is to ensure that customers access properties that they can afford,” he said.

Demand for housing has risen over the years in tandem with population growth and in a bid to accelerate the provision of housing, the Government has adopted several strategies to ensure access to housing by the majority of citizens.

As part of mechanisms to address the housing backlog and enhance human settlements delivery, the regularisation/sanitisation of informal and dysfunctional settlements is now gathering momentum across the breadth and length of the country.

The Government is also encouraging private sector involvement in housing delivery and various players are warming up to the idea and are already implementing projects countrywide.

Recently, Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the delivery of 220 000 housing units by 2025 is not the Government’s sole responsibility but a collective stakeholder approach aimed at reducing the estimated 1,5 million housing backlog.