A review of urban housing policy, production and consumption in Zimbabwe: the case of Harare

This paper reviews recent literature on urban housing in Zimbabwe in order to summarize the current state of knowledge on housing supply, demand and exchange, and the effect on these of policy interventions. The focus is on low-income housing in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Of interest to policymakers are the conditions required to expand housing production. These conditions are related to access to land, provision of infrastructure, capacity of the construction sector, supply of building materials, and availability of construction skills. The following forms of housing production can be found in Harare: private production of high-income housing, public sector house construction, serviced plot programmes, and unauthorized housing production. An overview of constraints on housing supply is followed by a survey of housing demand in Harare. Two indicators of housing need have been used in Zimbabwe: the official housing waiting lists and estimates of need based on population growth projections. The authors stress the importance of relating household income to the available housing options. Next, attention is paid to the system of financing the public sector housing investment programme and the existing private sector sources of housing finance. In conclusion, the exchange of housing is discussed. Bibliogr., sum.