Govt admits funding shortfall as 10 000 housing target looms
Government has missed its April target to build 3 000 houses and is now under pressure to deliver 10 000 by December, as set out in Swapo’s 2025–2030 manifesto implementation plan and Namibia’s Sixth National Development Plan (NDP6).
However, urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa says the country’s housing crisis cannot be addressed without substantially more funding.
Namibia's housing backlog is estimated at about 300 000 units, requiring an estimated N$76 billion – equivalent to about 72% of the country's N$106 billion 2026/27 national budget.
Sankwasa revealed the funding shortage in the National Assembly last week when he answered Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) member of parliament Inna Hengari, who had pressed him for a clear strategy to tackle the housing crisis and the financial burden facing homeowners and tenants.
Hengari argued that the country was facing a serious housing crisis without a sufficiently clear government response.
“We have a serious crisis and I don't think that we have had proper answers or proper responses from your ministry and… just a strategic way forward [on] how we're going to deal with this constantly increasing burden," she said.
Sankwasa pointed to parliament's responsibility for approving the money required to tackle the problem.
“If in this house, who is responsible for budget allocation? Budget approval will make a budget available, then the crisis we are talking about will be addressed," the minister said.
N$76 billion problem
National Housing Enterprise (NHE) board chairperson Toska Sem said in October last year that clearing Namibia's estimated 300 000-unit housing backlog would require about N$76 billion, with limited serviced land, high construction costs and inadequate funding among the major obstacles.
The estimate is consistent with figures provided by the urban and rural development ministry in 2020, when it calculated that about N$40 billion would be needed to service land and another N$36 billion to construct houses.
Current funding falls far short of those requirements. NHE has secured N$1.5 billion in medium-term loan financing to deliver about 2 300 houses, while it recently told parliament that it needs another N$662.29 million over the next three financial years to service 4 215 plots and construct 750 affordable houses.
Sankwasa has previously illustrated the scale of the challenge using Windhoek, where he estimated that servicing 55 000 plots would cost between N$2 billion and N$2.7 billion. Building houses on those plots would require another N$6.6 billion, putting the combined requirement at between N$8 billion and N$9.3 billion.
Swapo secretary for information and mobilisation Hilma Nicanor referred questions about the party's housing commitments to Sankwasa.
Mass homes still unfinished
Government, meanwhile, is still trying to complete houses left unfinished under the Mass Housing Development Programme (MHDP), more than a decade after the programme was launched.
In January, Namibian Sun reported that the ministry had failed to meet Swapo's commitment to complete and hand over all outstanding mass housing units by December 2025 because of legal, technical and planning challenges.
Ministry spokesperson Etuna Shikalepo last week said 4 850 units had been completed and handed over since the programme started, while 548 remained outstanding – 186 in Swakopmund and more than 300 in Windhoek.
Twenty-four outstanding units in Opuwo were completed, allocated and formally handed over on 6 August.
In Swakopmund, legal disputes and negotiations between government and the contractor delayed construction of the remaining 186 units.
Those issues were resolved towards the end of 2025, with government moving to finalise a contract with Desert Paving and Construction CC before construction resumes.
At Otjomuise Extension 10 in Windhoek, 58 of 362 units were handed over during 2025, leaving 304 scheduled for completion and handover by the end of October this year.
Questions over Khomas pledge
Questions also remain over a separate pledge by Khomas governor Sam Nujoma last year to deliver 5 000 houses in the region within the financial year through multi-stakeholder partnerships.
The governor's office said the urban and rural development ministry had allocated N$750 million to the City of Windhoek for land servicing, upgrading and formalisation of informal settlements.
The plan envisaged 16 formalised townships, 5 000 serviced erven, 5 000 affordable houses and 250 community ablution facilities.
However, the governor's office said the City had not accepted the funds by August 2025, prompting the ministry to redirect the money to other local authorities.
The City subsequently reported 2 132 serviced sites across projects in Goreangab Extension 4, Havana, Mix Settlement, Kapuka Nuuyala, Otjomuise Extension 4 and Groot Aub, which were expected to accommodate about 2 800 affordable houses.
Six procurement bids worth N$900 million were also placed on the market, with servicing work expected to have begun by March once funding became available.
The governor's office, ministry and City have, however, provided no substantive update on the 5 000-house commitment, with the three institutions maintaining that the pledge does not fall directly under their respective implementation mandates.
With the April target already missed, attention now shifts to government's next housing promise – 10 000 affordable houses for 2025 to 2030.
