THE Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr Jerry Silaa has underscored the need of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in housing sector to transform the real estate industry in the country.
Mr Silaa made the remarks on Monday in Dar es Salaam, when he was talking to the staff of the National Housing Corporation (NHC), shortly after visiting and inspecting the projects of Samia Housing Scheme, Morocco Square and Kawe 711.
Mr Silaa who also paid a visit at state -owned housing company for the first time after being appointed to assume the position, said in order for the real estate industry to flourish in the country, the FDI is inevitable.
“If you want to make reforms in real estate industry you must allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in housing sector,” Mr Silaa said.
In particular, the minister called on the corporation to continue to uphold the Joint Venture (JV) policy by inviting those with financial muscles to implement its projects.
Mr Silaa also pledged to address various challenges in the sector including policies and law challenges to attract investments.
Coupled with that, the minister also instructed the state-owned real estate developer (NHC) to resume construction activities in the stalled project Kawe 711 by next month.
“It is time the corporation ensured that it finishes negotiations with the contractor through the National Construction Council (NCC) and starts construction activities by October this year,” he said.
Regarding Samia Housing Scheme (Kawe), a project that entails the construction of 560 modern houses, the minister urged NHC to expand the scope of the project in other regions, especially large cities with high population density such as Mbeya, Arusha and Mwanza.
He also instructed the corporation to continue initiating other redevelopment projects such as Morocco Square project in other areas of Dar es Salaam to meet the housing demand resulting from the increase in population.
Expounding on the progress of the Morocco Square, the Director General of NHC, Mr Hamad Abdallah said currently the project reached 98 per cent and the corporation is expected to officially launch the building in December.
“Morocco Square is 98 per cent completed, it will soon be possible for shopping mall planners to begin doing fit-outs and shelf placement in order to open for business,” NHC DG said.
Commenting on multibillion project of Samia Housing Scheme, he noted that as of now NHC has sold 88 per cent of the houses in the scheme where up to now the corporation has been paid 16bn/-.