Further Delay in Delivery of 40/60 Housing
A 40/60 housing scheme project delayed by more than eight months, will not be able to deliver even in the rescheduled time frame of one month, announced the Saving Houses Development Enterprise that is mandated to construct the houses. The Enterprise had announced that the first two sites with 1,292 houses in Senga Tera and Crown would be finalized within one month. However the Enterprise has once again failed to mark the exact time when they will be transferred to savers.
“It is not my mandate to say the house will be transferred at this point of time,” said Hailu Kena, head of the Enterprise during a press briefing at its premises.
So far in this particular housing project 160,000 home seekers are registered and are saving the required amount. Of this number, 11,682 of them have saved 100pc of the payments and 29,000 have saved 40pc with the remaining saving the required amount monthly. As of June, 2015, these home seekers had saved 10 billion Br.
Basically, when the transfer of houses is done by the Enterprise, those who have already saved the full payment will get the first priority and then the chance will be given to those who have saved the 40pc.
The Enterprise has announced the status of housing projects across 13 sites and seven sites with 30,170 are 46pc complete. According to a press release, eight of those that commenced construction in 2013 and 2014 are running far behind their scheduled completion dates.
The first two sites, Senga Tera and Crown have rooms that are larger than those stated in the strategy. The strategy indicated 55sqm for one bedroom, 70sqm for two bedrooms and 100sqm for three bedrooms. However, at these two sites, the design itself which the Enterprise was given to construct the buildings, was found to be different than the others. The design was approved and came from the Ministry of Urban Development & Housing (MoUDH)
“It a good opportunity for buyers,” said Yohannes Abayneh, communications head at the Enterprise. “Buyers agreed on the price per square metre with the conditionality that it might change for a number of reasons, such as inflation in the construction input prices,” he added. Inflation is said to grow by 12pc every year.
Speaking of price, a committee comprising teams from the Enterprise and City Administration are studying price revision, a process which Yohannes said would be concluded in a few weeks. Following the study the Cabinet of the City Council are expected to approve the price revision.
“Those who can afford to pay will pay as per the new arrangement,” Yohannes said.
For this fiscal year the Enterprise had a three billion budget which has been consumed. It is now waiting for a supplementary budget for the supply of steel.
Hailu read aloud the elements in the process that were a challenge for the construction including re-enforcement bars, sanitary and electric cables. So far since his transfer to the Enterprise, 10,000tn of steel bars have been purchased from the local market via the Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service.
With specific reference to the Senga Tera and Crown sites, a long purchase process of sanitary and electric cables was re-tendered three times because of minimum standards in the quality of the products.
At the press briefing, Hailu also announced the commencement of eleven 18-storey buildings under construction around Megenagna. The 2B + G +18 buildings will each have 2,346 houses. In these buildings, the number of units on each floor have changed from six to 10. This buildings will take 19 months to be completed.