Addis Ababa 18 Feb 2015
DW’s director Allan Cain participated in an Expert Meeting on Housing Finance
convened by the African Development Bank and UN Habitat on 18 Feb 2015 in
visited sites of the Integrated
Housing Development Program in Addis.
has one of the lowest proportions of citizens living in urban areas: only 16.7 percent. However, things are changing
and the country is now urbanizing at an annual growth rate of 3.49 percent. The
combination of high population and urban growth rates, coupled with a high
prevalence of urban poverty, has placed enormous strain on Ethiopian cities,
especially when it comes to affordable housing.
The Ethiopian Government launched the affordable housing program in 2004, building condominium houses in five-storey blocks. They are built both in the center of cities or in peripheral areas at low cost. The condos have been transferred to their owners by way of a computer-based lottery system. When registering for the lottery, applicants choose which condominium site, sub-city and unit type they prefer. Thirty percent of housing units are allocated to women. Presently, there is no income verification system in place but lottery entrants must be able to prove that they have lived in Addis for at least six months.
current housing project has a goal of constructing 400,000 condominium units
between 2010 and 2015. Although the program has not met its original targets it
has built 171,000 housing units to date. Up to January 2014, over 800 million
dollars was earmarked for the housing projects in cities across
construction of 65,000 houses commenced in 2013 and construction of the same
number of houses will begin in 2015. Some 22,000 condos were handed over to
beneficiaries in 2014 alone, according to the Ethiopian Housing Development
Agency. And the government expects to transfer 76,000 houses to individuals in
2015. Close to one million individuals that seek condos have been registered
since 2012 in
only.
Two projects were visited Yeka Ayat II Baldaras (2000 units) completed in 2007 in the urban centre and Yeka Abado (18,000 units) nearing completion in the periphery of he city. The projects are financed nationally by issuing Municipal Bonds through the state Commercial Bank. End-user purchase is through three subsidized housing mechanisms:
10% down payment 90% 20 year mortgage at 9% interest for
studio and one room units 25 – 40 m.sq.
20% down payment to own through 15 year mortgage for two bedroom units of 60 m.sq.
40% down payment 60% mortgage over 10 years for three bedroom units of 100 m.sq.
The construction technology is simple reinforced concrete frames with hollow block walls and floor. Hundreds of local small and medium contractors have been
trained and 60,000 local jobs have been created. Technology is simple and local
using timber-pole scaffolding, no cranes are used. Roadways are built using
labor-intensive methods of traditional coble-stone employing 33% women in the construction.