Our Housing Backlog Begins With Land Delivery

Every year, Namibia’s housing backlog grows despite housing programmes, policy reforms and substantial public investment. From mass housing development programmes to local authority housing initiatives, government has repeatedly tried to build its way out of the crisis.

Yet the backlog persists – estimated at more than 300 000 units – while a significant percentage of urban residents live in informal settlements.

Public debate almost always revolves around one question: how do we build more houses? This is perhaps not the right question.

Namibia’s housing crisis is not simply a shortage of houses. It is fundamentally a crisis of land governance, land servicing and urban planning.

Before a single brick can be laid, land must be identified, planned, surveyed, proclaimed, serviced and allocated.

When this process is slow, fragmented and expensive, housing delivery inevitably slows with it.

For decades, housing delivery has largely been measured by the number of completed houses handed over to beneficiaries.