"No government can meet all the housing needs of its population”, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"No government can meet all the housing needs of its population”

Yet, in Addis Ababa the current government adheres to strong governmental interference in dealing with housing. It launched in 2005 a government-led and financed, large-scale housing development programme, called the Integrated Housing Development Programme. The programme’s focus has been promoting private homeownership by building condominiums. Condominium houses are multiple-unit dwellings in which each individual unit is separately owned and common areas are of joint ownership. The programme aimed, besides providing housing to low- and middle-income households, at creating a better image of the city and at enhancing the exploitation of the city’s economic potentials. Increased attention was put on urban redevelopment by replacing poor residential areas either with condominium houses or other uses. The majority of the condominium housing sites are located on the city’s outskirts, as the space which is “set free” in the inner-city is supposed to be allocated for more profitable uses form an economical point of view. This has led to several issues such as that mainly wealthier households can afford to live in the newly constructed houses. Relocated households rent out their units, or leave the sites to live somewhere else as they lack the financial capacities to afford the down-payment as well as service payments for the units allocated to them.

How could the government have assured to reach its target group? What do you think about government-led housing interventions like this one? Which role could or should the private sector have played?

#housing #urbanoctober #financing #housingshortage#governmentintervention #urbanism

#affordability#adequatestandardofliving #affordablehousing #citylife #sustainability

#accessibility #sdg11 #urbanlife #cityexplorations #addisabba #ethiopia#hornofafrica #africa