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Ongos Valley introduces new affordable housing initiative, ‘Rent-To-Own’

Ongos Valley introduces new affordable housing initiative, ‘Rent-To-Own’

In order to afford low to middle-income earners the opportunity to own property, Ongos Valley introduced the ‘Rent-To-Own’ initiative which will see 1,000 homes sold in Ongos Valley, just outside Windhoek.

Houses built under the initiative will have prices ranging between N$550 000 to N$700 000, comprising of various housing types ranging from flats to sectional title and single residential 1 to 3 bedroom housing units. The houses will be occupied under an instalment sale model, commonly known as rent-to-buy and in terms of the agreement, the purchase price shall be paid by way of monthly instalments over a period exceeding one year but not exceeding five years.

The homeowner thus has the choice of occupying the property during the period from when they first start making their first instalment.

Rent-To-Own Namibia CEO, Inocencio Verde said the initiative was founded based on the fact that the current housing prices in Windhoek especially leaves the majority of economically productive labour force outside of the property market.

Verde added that the instalment of sales model is to provide finance for individuals who have a high probability of qualifying for a traditional home loan directly from a banking/financial institution.

“We believe this financing model will not only be welcomed during these challenging economic times but will serve as a guiding light on how to solve Namibia’s problems,” Verde said.

The 1, 000 houses, built on the planned 4,457 housing unit development at Ongos Valley, just 13 km from Windhoek’s CBD, will be integrated with supporting infrastructure such as schools, public institutions, clinics, parks and commercial hubs.

Speaking at the official launch of the initiative in Windhoek, Deputy Minister of Finance, Natangue Ithete said the called on developers, financiers and municipalities to put humanity before profit.

“Price your property in such a way that you aim at recovering costs with minimum profit, rather than maximizing it at the expense of the homeless,” Ithete said.


 

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys