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. This approach is financially difficult to sustain. Building complete houses for hundreds of thousands of households requires enormous public expenditure at a time when government must also finance education, healthcare, transport infrastructure and other national priorities. As the backlog outpaces annual delivery, the gap widens. At the same time, thousands of Namibians continue to settle in informal areas. Many households are prepared to invest their own labour and resources in building permanent homes. However, without secure tenure and access to serviced land – supported by roads, water, sanitation and electricity – the opportunity to build formally simply does not exist. Community-led initiatives demonstrate that when households obtain secure land rights and basic services, many are willing to build and improve their homes incrementally. This suggests that one of the main barriers to housing delivery is not necessarily a lack of human capacity, but a limited supply of affordable, serviced urban land. THE CHALLENGE Namibia’s urban development model has compounded the problem. For decades, our towns have expanded outwards through low-density residential layouts characterised by relatively large erven and extensive infrastructure networks. While this model has shaped many of our urban areas, it has increased the cost of delivering roads, water, sewerage and electricity to every new neighbourhood. The further towns expand horizontally, the more expensive housing delivery becomes. The challenge extends beyond infrastructure costs. Township establishment, land surveying, environmental approvals, cadastral registration and property transfers often take several years. Although these processes protect legal certainty and orderly development, delays can significantly constrain the timely release of serviced land. This is where land administration becomes central. Often viewed as a technical discipline concerned with surveying, registration, valuation and property records, it is one of the most important enablers of housing delivery. Efficient land administration determines how quickly land enters the market, how securely rights are protected, how efficiently municipalities recover infrastructure investments, and how confidently households invest in their own homes. When land administration systems function well, housing markets become more responsive and inclusive. When they don’t, housing shortages become inevitable. Rather than directing most public resources towards building complete houses, government could prioritise the rapid delivery of serviced land, infrastructure and secure tenure. Households, community savings groups, financial institutions and private developers could then play a greater role in financing and building homes according to their circumstances. Such a model has the potential to stretch public resources further while empowering citizens to participate directly in solving the housing challenge. CONSIDERATIONS Namibia should reconsider its continued reliance on low-density urban expansion. Higher-density developments including townhouses, apartments and sectional title schemes allow more households to live closer to employment opportunities while reducing infrastructure costs per dwelling. Density should not be viewed as a compromise but as an essential component of affordable, sustainable urban development. Equal attention should be given to the number of serviced plots delivered annually, the speed of land allocation, the efficiency of township establishment, the security of tenure provided to households and the affordability of urban living. Namibia’s housing crisis is too often presented as a construction challenge. In reality, it begins with the governance of land. Until we reform the systems that determine how land is planned, serviced, allocated and managed, the housing backlog will continue to outpace our ability to build. However, if we place land delivery at the centre of housing policy, we stand a better chance of addressing the root causes instead of responding to its symptoms. The future of housing in Namibia will not be determined solely by how many houses we build. It will be determined by how effectively we deliver land. – Natsaantu E Kefas is a land administration professional.