EDITORIAL: Housing crisis needs more than building materials

The recent debate around prefabricated housing, sparked by Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare’s social media commentary, is a welcome attempt at confronting Namibia’s housing crisis – but it misses the broader, more urgent picture.Namibia’s housing headache is not merely a matter of construction materials. It is a complex conundrum fuelled by a lack of affordable land, punitive financing models, exorbitant transfer fees and the unaffordability of municipal services. Introducing cheaper housing models without addressing the underlying ecosystem is like treating a bullet wound with a band-aid. Simply replacing bricks with panels won't solve this.There’s little point in celebrating a N$150 000 prefab house if the land it stands on costs N$300 000. Our country’s urban land is priced like beachfront property in Dubai, despite offering none of the services that justify such costs. Even qualified professionals, who should be the bedrock of the middle class, are increasingly finding themselves unable to break into homeownership. For the unemployed and low-income earners, the dream of owning a home is nothing short of a fantasy.A housing solution must be holistic. The price of land, cost of services, interest rates on mortgages and legal processes around property acquisition must all be re-evaluated. If not, prefabs will be nothing more than window dressing on a structurally broken system.It is time for Namibia to convene a national housing indaba – a cross-sectoral conference where uncomfortable truths are aired and practical, binding decisions are taken. Among the questions it must answer is this: Why can a N$1.5 million car be paid off in five years, yet a house of the same value traps buyers in debt for two decades?

EDITORIAL: Housing crisis needs more than building materials

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-17

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EDITORIAL: Housing crisis needs more than building materials

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-17

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