Addis Ababa’s Housing Development and Administration Agency has given an update on the housing crisis in the city after reports of various policies were proliferating across the city during the past few weeks that the agency claims are not true.
According to the Agency’s Director, Dr. Meskerem Zewdie, many of these rumours have been circulating after the city administration signed an agreement with South Africa’s Property 2000. The agreement stipulates that Property 2000, a real estate agency and accredited credit provider, is to fund the construction of 500,000 housing units (condos) over the next five years.
This agreement and an agreement with the United Arab Emirates-based commercial investment company Wadi Al Sider for the construction of 30,000 housing units, among other housing related efforts, have created the perception that the city’s housing crisis is on its way to being solved; a perception that is wrong according to Dr. Meskerem.
According to the Dr. Meskerem, due to the damage done by the previous policies that were adopted by the previous administration, the housing crisis is going to take more than 30 years to solve. The issue of individuals that are waiting to be assigned housing units after registering for the affordable units that were put on offer by the government is going to take at least 30 years, if not more.
There are currently more than 650 thousand residents of the city that have registered and made deposits for affordable housing. The Property 2000 and Wadi Al Sider agreements only provide 530,000 units at most. The administration itself claims to be engaged in the construction of approximately 139,000 housing units; a total of 669,000 housing units.
Despite these numbers, the administration firmly holds that the solution to the housing crisis is still far off. While the administration cannot be expected to provide an immediate solution, 30 years however, seems a bit much as noted by critics, especially due to no satisfactory explanation being provided except for “the previous administration’s policies”.