The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
BARELY a month after availing land for over 500 stands, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has already identified more land that will see the development of flats in Cowdray Park and more residential stands in other areas in a bid to augment housing delivery in the city.
Last month, Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, flighted an expression of interest notice for the servicing of 460 residential stands in Umganin and 118 stands in Emganwini.
This comes after the local authority completed the servicing of 526 stands that were availed to various contractors under a new concept where they work with developers with their own funds, instead of the traditional pre-sale concept.
According to the latest council report, the local authority has identified more land which will be developed under various schemes, ranging from using internal resources to a Government partnership and also the partnering with private developers who will service the land using their own resources.
In the first major project, the local authority is seeking developers that will service 670 residential stands in Mahatshula East and 452 in Luveve North. These are part of the stands that were initially meant to be developed by CBZ and FBC banks, but the offer was withdrawn after the parties failed to agree on terms of the deals.
“Council rescinded its decision of offer of 670 stands in Mahatshula East to CBZ and 453 residential stands in Luveve North to FBC Bank.
The department was therefore seeking permission to advertise and avail the stands to developers with development finance for servicing through an Expression of Interest.
“Once servicing was complete the stands would then be sold to beneficiaries on the Council waiting list with the developers recouping their investment from the proceeds of the sale of the stands.
The stands in Luveve were as depicted on TPD 270/4 with an average stand size of 200 square metres and the stands in Mahatshula East were as depicted by TPD 314/3 with an average area of 600 square metres,” reads the report.
The local authority has further availed land to the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities for the construction of flats in Cowdray Park.
The identified land will be sold at a special discount to the Ministry, which would then be in charge of the servicing of the area.
“An application had been received from the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities, seeking land to develop flats for residential dwelling.
From a town planning point of view there were no objections for the application to be considered for two sites in Cowdray Park being Stands 14108 Cowdray Park measuring 1.4671 hectares and 9393 Cowdray Park measuring 1.0905 hectares.
The sites were set aside as flats sites in terms of the layouts covering the areas. The Town Lands and Planning Committee had recommended that two stands be sold to the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities for the development of residential flats with a building condition of a plinth area of 1 000 square metres and that the purchase price of the stand be debited against the Government’s 10 percent commonage entitlement,” reads the council report.
To add to these developments, the local authority has also identified 117 residential stands in Pumula South which are already partially serviced and will be sold to beneficiaries in the housing waiting list.
“These stands presented a quick win in terms of servicing due to the partially services available and the proximity of outfall infrastructure which we would want to take advantage of as a city.
“It was therefore suggested that these stands be serviced by the Engineering Services Department using funds currently invested in the estate account, and thereafter the stands would be handed over to the Director of Housing and Community Services for allocation to beneficiaries.
Council would be able to make a profit out of the sale of these stands and the proceeds used in servicing of the presale projects that had remained incomplete,” reads the report.
