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Shelter Afrique urges African States to explore broader partnerships in tackling affordable
housing
Co-Founder and Executive Director at Devtraco Group says the real estate sector has
experienced tremendous growth and activity in recent years
A significant drop in housing transactions has been recorded in recent months
across Israel
Shelter Afrique urges African States to explore broader partnerships in tackling affordable
housing
African housing development financier, shelter Afrique has urged African governments to
prioritize partnerships in their quest to provide affordable housing to their citizens.
According to Mr. Thierno-Habib Hann, the Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, housing
occupies a central position within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mr. Hann firmly believes that the establishment of sustainable partnerships assumes paramount
importance in affecting substantial and meaningful advancements in the sphere of affordable
housing provision.
Mr. Hann was speaking at the sidelines of the United Nations Habitat Assembly held last week
in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to him, adequate housing is one of the key components of Sustainable Development
Goals and achieving housing goals will require collaborative efforts and forging fruitful
partnerships among key players in the housing sector.
Co-Founder and Executive Director at Devtraco Group says the real estate sector has
experienced tremendous growth and activity in recent years
Mr Joseph Aidoo, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Devtraco Group says the real estate
sector has experienced tremendous growth and activity in recent years, driven by factors such as
urbanization, population growth, and an increase in middle-class incomes.
In an interview with Marcopolis i Accra,he said although significant challenges still exist within
the sector, such as access to affordable financing and a problematic land tenure system.
According to him, to be successful in navigating this terrain, developers must adopt creative
technologies to improve efficiency and drive down costs, passing those savings on to the end
user. Tell us about your expansion plans.
Mr Aidoo reaffirmed the company’s commitment to ensure that all their buildings are truly green
within the next five years .
In Kenya,
The proposal to introduce a housing levy, has elicited much debate centred on taxation, finance,
slum upgrading, governance and the cost of living, but has left out the most important aspect of
the levy
Although building houses are the central activity of a housing programme, it seeks to achieve
more than just shelter.
Experts say such programmes can deliver health and safety outcomes, better access to schools,
hospitals and markets, vibrant social networks, crime management and efficient use of existing
public infrastructure.
But housing programmes—particularly in Kenya where we have talented, hardworking but
under-employed young people—can become a stimulus by upscaling a wide spectrum of trading
activities.
The volume of home sales in Israel dropped by 55% year over year in April, falling
nearly to the lowest levels in 20 years, according to a Finance Ministry report on real
estate transactions.
In other news
A significant drop in housing transactions has been recorded in recent months across
the country, as prices and interest rates have climbed.
This slowdown has affected new builds as well as secondhand properties in the
private market and homes sold through government-subsidised programs.
According to the monthly report by the office of the Finance Ministry’s chief
economist, just 4,001 real estate transactions were recorded in April 2023, down from
some 9,000 in April 2022 and roughly 11,000 in April 2021.
It was the lowest figure since at least 2002, except for April 2020 — at the height of
Israel’s first pandemic lockdown — with just about 2,000 home sales transactions.