Background
Namibia is compelled to observe and to undertake efforts to realise the right to adequate housing, since it has ratified the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1994. In short, the right to adequate housing does not mean that governments should
build a house for every citizen, but it does compel them to demonstrate that they are taking steps to realise this right for every citizen.
This right includes security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability; habitability; accessibility;
adequate location; and cultural adequacy. It furthermore includes protection against forced evictions, arbitrary interference with ones
home, and the right to determine ones place of living. Furthermore, this right is envisioned to be progressively attained.

What has been done?
- Before independence, there was no national housing policy as such. The Namibia Building Investment Corporation (NBIC, or Nasboukor
for its initials in Afrikaans) was established in 1978 and produced housing for low-income groups, but this was not favoured by conservative
municipalities due to low standards and it was also not favoured by beneficiaries as they perceived the products to be inferior and costly.
- A month after independence, a workshop on housing was convened and the first National Housing Policy was drafted soon thereafter.
The policy was very comprehensive and positioned the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) as the government agency responsible for
providing affordable and quality housing. It was also in this document where the minimum erf size of 300m2 was established, which was a
directive from the Minister of Local Government and Housing at that time. The policy was reviewed in 2008 to include the Build Together
Programme and the efforts of the Shack Dwellers Federation.
- NHE is the government parastatal in charge of housing and serves those in the gap market i.e. those earning a stable income ranging
between N$4,000 and 30,000 per month. This is the sector of low- and medium-level government workers. However, the institution is
characterised by its slow pace of delivery. It only develops about 400 units every year.
- The Build Together Programme was established in 1992 with external support as a form of state-supported micro-credit lender for
land and housing development and improvements managed by the line ministry (today Ministry of Urban and Rural Development). The
programme was decentralised in 2007 to local authorities and although some capacity issues hindered the initial phases, the programme
remains active and is arguably the government programme with the widest reach.
- The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia emerged from an association of housing groups established in the 1980s and today count
almost 30,000 members among their ranks or about 1% of the Namibian population. Through saving groups they have managed to
mobilise resources to develop blocks of land, build housing, improve living conditions, and to provide other non-housing-related loans.
Their key challenge is access to suitable urban land with infrastructure.
- The Mass Housing Development Programme was launched in 2013 and had seven sub-programmes aimed at building 180,000 units by
2030. The first phase focused only on one sub-programme, namely the delivery of credit-linked housing. Due to various obstacles, the
programme was discontinued in 2015 and is currently under review by a team led by NUST.
- Namibia has witnessed the emergence of gated communities (sectional title developments) and lifestyle estates geared towards
maximum profit-extraction, which only serves to enhance the segregated nature of the urban experience.
- The Habitat Research and Development Centre (HRDC) was developed to explore alternative construction materials and other habitat-
related issues, however, it has reportedly not accomplished its goals.
- In 2016, the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement legally challenged government to institute rent controls, however a decision on this
proposal has yet to materialise.
- There is no social housing nor a comprehensive system of subsidies for the provision of housing in Namibia. Government maintains a
number of residential properties (e.g. government flats), and while local authorities have sold most of their housing stock, it still maintains
some units.

Fact Sheet 1/2018

HOUSING
Integrated Land Management Institute

Evidence so far
- State expenditure on the built environment has been comparatively insufficient in comparison with neighbouring countries.
- That which has been spent to date indicates that government funding is best suited for the provision of bulk infrastructure; coordinating
housing needs and urban development; supporting peoples processes, and keeping their activities and programmes up to date.
- Commercial finance is only able to serve those with formal employment or considerable economic means, but even this demographic is
increasingly becoming a minority in Namibia today.
- New materials can help to reduce some costs and the environmental footprint, but the total cost of housing cannot be reduced with this
alone.
- Most of the housing being developed currently comprises of single-family homes on individual plots, which has proven to be expensive
from the land servicing point of view and may not be adequate to cater for every demographic (e.g. bachelors, youth, elderly, single
couples).
- Land use embeds high costs in land for housing by imposing planning restrictions, densities, and development regulation

References
¹OHCHR. (n.d.). Right to Adequate Housing (No. Fact Sheet No. 21).
Geneva: Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and
UN-Habitat. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/
Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf
²NBIC. (1990). Review of operations. Windhoek: National Building
& Investment Corporation of Namibia.
3Andima, J. (1992). Notes on the National Housing Seminar,
Windhoek, 19-20 April 1990 (NEPRU Travel and Meeting Report
No. 1). Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit. Retrieved from
http://dna.nust.na/landconference/nepru_docs/notes_on_
national_housing_seminar_windhoek.pdf
4Republic of Namibia. (1990). Namibia National Housing Policy.
5NHE. (2014). Financial Statements 2009-2014. Windhoek: National
Housing Enterprise.
6Ministry of Urban and Rural Development. (2007). Namibia
Build Together National Housing Programme : implementation
guidelines & procedures. Windhoek: Ministry of Urban and
Rural Development. Retrieved from http://www.murd.gov.
na/documents/99085/148699/BTP+Booklet+19+March+2007.
pdf/6a85a0b3-21d2-4ade-b88b-ef912c2d8950
7SDFN, & NHAG. (2016). June 2015 - August 2016 Report for our
patron Madame Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic
of Namibia. Shackdwellers Federation of Namibia & Namibia
Housing Action Group.
8Republic of Namibia. (2013). Summary of blueprint on mass
housing development initiative in Namibia. Retrieved from
http://newmasshousing.nust.na/sites/default/files/documents/
Blueprint%20Mass%20Housing.pdf
9Morange, M., Folio, F., Peyroux, E., & Vivet, J. (2012). The spread
of a transnational model: gated communities in three Southern
African cities (Cape Town, Maputo and Windhoek). International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 36(5), 890914.
10Sweeney-Bindels, E. (2011). Housing Policy and Delivery in
Namibia. Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Retrieved
from http://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Housing%20
Report%20IPPR.pdf
11Zambia spends about 0.5% of its GDP, and South Africa 3.7%.
See: UN-Habitat (2012) Zambia. Urban Housing Sector Profile.
Nairobi: UN-Habitat. Retrieved from: https://unhabitat.org/books/
zambia-urban-housing-sector-profile/ ; and Tomlinson, M. (2015).
South Africas Housing Conundrum. @Liberty, a Policy Bulleting
by the South African Institute for Race Relations, 4(20), 114.
Retrieved from: https://irr.org.za/reports/atLiberty/files/liberty-
2013-south-africas-housing-conundrum
12Forthcoming, review of the MHDP.
13Chiripanhura, B. (2018). Housing in Namibia: the challenges and
prospects for adequate future provision (ILMI Working Paper No.
7). Windhoek: Integrated Land Management Institute. Retrieved
from http://ilmi.nust.na/sites/default/files/WP7-CHIRIPANHURA-
Housing-in-Namibia-WEB.pdf

Openings for intervention
- The review of the MHDP is set to pave the way in which the line
ministry (MURD) engages with the housing question. It is currently
being reviewed by the government.
- A pilot study by NUST is exploring the effect of people-led (SDFN,
BTP) and developer-led (NHE) processes in Tsumeb and once
completed could be rolled out nationally.
- Government currently owns about 900 housing units nationwide
and subsidises tenants occupying these. This is a ready-made
social-housing programme and can be studied to understand
how a social housing programme in Namibia could look like. Local
authorities could also coordinate to mobilise the housing units
they own through a more comprehensive programme.
- Available land for housing needs to be re-thought from land
available at the edges of local authorities, to land in centrally-
located areas that is either publicly-owned or underutilised.
- New housing developments challenging the apartheid city
structure, creating areas where affordable, medium-density
housing in centrally-located areas, can be developed.

Missing evidence
- Comprehensive audits of land allocated by local authorities
for housing, the nature of beneficiaries, and the impact on their
development.
- Audit and review of the Build Together Programme, nature and
extent of beneficiaries, and the impact on their development.
- Evaluation of the adequacy of the waiting list approach of
allocating land in urban areas.
- The extent of evictions and forced displacement in urban areas.
- Opportunities for inner-city affordable rentals.
- Government position on housing subsidies.
- Government position on densification.

About ILMI
The Integrated Land Management Institute is a centre of the
Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences (FNRSS) at the
Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), which is
committed to developing reputable and multidisciplinary research
and public outreach activities in the field of land administration,
property, architecture and spatial planning. http://ilmi.nust.na/

Contact
For more information about the topic of this fact sheet, please
contact: Guillermo Delgado - gdelgado@nust.na

Acknowledgment
This fact sheet was developed by Guillermo Delgado, Integrated
Land Management Institute (ILMI), NUST. He can be contacted at
gdelgado@nust.na

This fact sheet was produced on the occasion of the Short Course
for Journalists on Land Matters held on 7 September 2018. Other
fact sheets that were developed for this course focus on ancestral
land, urban land, communal land, land reform, and informal
settlements. They can be downloaded at: http://ilmi.nust.na/

This event was possible through a partnership between the Editors
Forum of Namibia (EFN), the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ), the
Integrated Land Management Institute (ILMI), and the Namibia
Media Trust (NMT)