NHC should carry the mantle of Tanzania’s national housing agenda

Her Excellency the President has recently reappointed the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Housing Corporation, the largest real estate holder in the country. That Chairman, Dr Sophia Kongela, is a well-known academic and practitioner of real estate development and management.

In the wake of that Presidential appointment, the Minister for Lands, Hon Dr Angeline Mabula, appointed a new 8-Member Board of Directors for the NHC. The Directors include financial analysts, academics, researchers and real estate practitioners.

In terms of housing, the NHC demonstrates the urge which the country had at Independence to improve housing for everybody. It was the first parastatal to be created, in 1962. In 1990, it was reformulated, when it took over the assets of the Registrar of Buildings, a body that had been created in 1971, to manage and extend the properties nationalized under the Buildings Acquisition Act of 1971.

The functions of the NHC, as provided for under the National Housing Corporation Act 1990, include: (1) to provide or facilitate the provision of houses and other buildings in Tanzania for use by members of the public for residential, business, industrial or other purposes; (2) to engage in (a) the construction of houses or other buildings for sale; (b) the construction of buildings as part of approved housing schemes; (c) the provisions of, or, facilitating the provision of building materials, components, concrete articles and other related articles, whether through the establishment of factories or subsidiary companies or in any other way; (d) the business of building contractors, planners or consultants; (e) the business of estate managers in respect of properties owned by the Corporation and of any others on approved terms.

(3) The Corporation was required to take over and continue the management of the affairs, properties and operations of the Registrar as at that date; and (4) The Corporation is required to carry out any other activities related or incidental to the construction of houses or other buildings, the administration of estates, and the management of the affairs related to buildings and houses built or acquired by the Corporation or otherwise transferred to it by or under this Act.

Taking into consideration its historical role, as well as bearing in mind its functions as provided by the law, the NHC needs to be at the forefront of formulating, propagating and implementing a National Housing Agenda, which needs to be formulated in the first instance.

It is intriguing that up to this day, Tanzania does not have a National Housing Policy, although some feel that the existence of the National Human Settlements Development Policy 2000 covers this gap. This need not be the case; and one reason for this lopsided view, is because housing has been in the hands of land use planners for the past decades, who see it in terms of settlements.

Among many others, housing is very much about the quality of the product (standards), and affordability (finance).

This calls for there being a minimum housing standard, which a developing Tanzania must aspire to for each of its citizens. Just as there is a minimum standard for education, there needs to be a minimum standard for housing. This may inform the type of new houses which the NHC may construct for sale, or rent out, if it is targeting the average Tanzanian household.

It will also inform what should be done about the old houses, which are below that minimum standard, and those that have deteriorated from it, with the passage of time.

Without a minimum standard house, the figures that are cited from time to time, about the housing deficit in the country and the number of new houses required annually to meet new demand, have no scientific criteria. The NHC may therefore find it appropriate to develop this minimum standard house.

In most parts of the developed world, housing is bought rather than constructed. This has led to the growth of a robust mortgage system. Can the NHC spearhead the growth of an affordable house finance system? This may be of use to many households, who would then, acquire houses ready for occupation, instead of struggling with construction which takes years to complete, and houses are many times occupied incomplete, denying the owner/occupier the privilege of enjoying a completed house for a longer part of their life.

A discourse on housing and how it can play a crucial role in realizing the socioeconomic development of the country needs to be encouraged; looking at both house ownership, and renting. Currently, housing is taking a backseat in national socioeconomic deliberations, something which is undesirable.

This is, therefore, to appeal to the new NHC Board of Directors to find ways of anchoring housing well into the national development agenda. This entails having a clearly-spelt out programme that will see housing being the backbone of catapulting and cementing Tanzania into an upper middle-income country.