Despite Botswana’s higher per-capita income compared to most other countries in the region, ensuring access to an affordable mortgage remains a challenge. With half of the population living below the international poverty line, developers and public housing authorities cannot provide new, formally-constructed units for all. Ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, then, requires thinking beyond expanding the traditional mortgage and development markets.
One way that Botswana has done this is by establishing and funding a locally implemented Self-Help Housing Agency (SHHA). SHHA provides low-income residents with plots and construction finance so they can self-build their housing. Residents have the option to choose between a completed US$6,744 housing with a zero-interest, 20-year loan, or a US$5,058 home improvement loan on the same terms. In 2013, US$6.9 million was allocated to 1,000 beneficiaries for the homes program, and US$2.23 million went to 444 beneficiaries for the home improvement program.
Source:
World Bank Group. (2015) Stocktaking of the Housing Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa : Challenges and Opportunities. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23358