EDITORIAL: Namibia’s housing crisis - a cycle we can no longer afford

Namibia’s land and housing crisis is not a problem of effort - it is a problem of structure. We can berate the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) for under-delivery until the cows come home, but as long as the fundamentals remain broken, the cycle will continue, and so will the human cost.

At the heart of the problem is the unaffordability of land in municipal areas. Local authorities rightly see land as their most valuable asset, a key source of revenue in an era of chronic underfunding from central government. When municipalities are starved of resources, they are forced to treat land not as a public good but as a commercial commodity. This creates a cascading effect that reverberates through the entire housing sector.

When entities like NHE approach municipalities to acquire land for housing projects, they are confronted with inflated prices. Should NHE purchase land at these exorbitant rates, the cost is inevitably passed on to the homes they construct. The result: houses that are financially out of reach for the very citizens they were intended to serve. When fewer homes are built because the land is too costly, the shortage worsens. When homes are priced beyond the reach of low-income earners, citizens are pushed into renting, informal settlements, or makeshift shacks.

This cycle is not merely unfortunate; it is a failure of policy and planning. It is the predictable consequence of underfunded municipalities, rigid land allocation policies, and a housing strategy that fails to prioritise affordability. Until these structural weaknesses are addressed, even the most ambitious construction programmes will fall short, and Namibians will continue to see secure housing as an aspiration rather than a right.

Namibia has the resources, expertise, and capacity to turn this crisis around. What is lacking is political will.