Private houses to be registered

lydia shekighenda

THE government is set to establish a special register for real properties in the country to facilitate collection of various fees and transfers of ownership.

Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development, Minister William Lukuvi, revealed this recently in Mororogo when opening a one-day workshop aimed at building capacity to journalists on reporting issues related to laws and regulations governing land administration in the country.

He said that upon enactment of the Real Estate Development Bill into law, real property owners would be obliged to register their houses and other buildings in the registry.

"We want the law to have a section that would require all real property owners to register their assets in the special registry to facilitate payment of various fees and transfers," he said.

Minister Lukuvi said that the new system is expected to commence next year. He assured that it will be effectively implemented since his ministry has advanced electronic systems to facilitate communication.

He noted that the government has already drafted the bill on Real Estate Development noting that once enacted into law it will also safeguard the rights of landlords and tenants.

Mr Lukuvi, however, noted that the government is currently reviewing the National Land Policy 1995 and its first draft had already been debated by stakeholders in a public hearing held in Morogoro. He said the National Housing Policy is also undergoing review whose preparations were underway for Human Settlement Development Policy.

“The review of the policies and enactment of the new law will help in addressing various challenges facing the land sector especially on land disputes, Mr Lukuvi said.”

On Property valuation, he said, reports on 9,047 properties have been prepared and approved for various uses such as payment of government levies and fees for various transactions, land ownership transfer permits, among others.

Minister Lukuvi, however, said that the government is currently holding talks on adopting new technology that will help in constructing better and affordable houses. He said that most of the houses being built in the country are not affordable, thus deny the low income earners ownership of better houses.

“As a country we are yet to fulfil the demand of building affordable houses. Plans are underway to make sure that such houses are built next year,” he said. He said his ministry has continued to collect statistics on real estate developers which show that to date a total of 17,132 housing projects are currently under implementation.

Minister Lukuvi said that between January 2015 and December 2016 the National Housing Corporation (NHC) continued to implement a total of 52 projects for construction of 8,165 houses for various uses. A total of 27 projects for construction of 2,034 houses have been completed while 25 projects with 6,131 houses are still under construction.

He said out of 2,034 houses which have been completed 492 are affordable houses, 918 are medium and high priced, 342 are commercial houses while 281 are houses for mixed use.

The minister said Watumishi Housing Company (WHC) was proceeding with the construction of 701 houses in various regions in the country among them Morogoro, Mwanza and Dar es Salaam which will be sold to public servants.