1. HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TANZANIA
STATE OF THE HOUSING INDUSTRY IN TANZANIA
(IHA MEETING- 1ST -4TH NOV.2016)
IHA Secretariat 1

2. HFHT is a registered NGO under Societies Ordinance. 2
COUNTRY: TANZANIA
NAME OF ORGANIZATION: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TANZANIA (HFHT) 1- ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW:
HFHT is a registered NGO under Societies Ordinance.
HFHT is affiliated with Habitat for Humanity International, which is an ecumenical Christian housing ministry with objective of eliminating housing poverty globally
HFHT started its operation in 1986, where it was building houses for low income earners.
In 2009 HFHT started a housing microfinance program known as Makazi Bora, in which loans are issued to low and medium income households for housing improvement and incremental construction
Makazi Bora program has benefited more than 5,000 households. 2

3. 2- HOUSING ECONOMIC STATISTICS:
Starts:
Percentages:
Numbers:
- Single Family NA
- Multifamily
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (USD Billions)
44.9
GDP Growth
7.9%
GDP Per Capita (USD)
842.44
House Price Index
N/A
108.82
Consumer Price Index
103.05
Unemployment
10.3%
Home Mortgage Interest Rate
19%
Home Ownership Rate
Population Growth/Net
3.02%

4. 3. HOUSING NEEDS IN TANZANIA4
The Housing demand in Tanzania is estimated to be 3,000,000 units with projected annual growth of 200,000 units.
Besides the quantitative needs, the quality of houses for most of low income households is very low.
HFHT addresses the housing needs in Tanzania through provision of loans in order to enable households to construct their houses incrementally or improve their existing houses in stages as they cannot get lumpsum amount of money to have complete and decent houses at once. 4

5. 4. SOCIAL HOUSING IN TANZANIA5
Social Housing in Tanzania existed as far back as late1960s and 1970s
In that time the government had initiatives of removing houses that were regarded to be of “very poor quality” through project namely “slum clearance”
The initiatives did not go beyond 1982 due to incapacity of the government to provide more subsidies in housing sector
In 1990 the registrar of building was restructured and National housing corporation (NHC) was formed so to enter into the housing market competition.
Currently, the government is providing incentives to expand housing services through various institutions including the Tanzania Housing Corporation (NHC). However, the acquisition of houses from NHC is not regarded as a social because the houses are sold on the basis of costs involved.
Housing services in Tanzania, in additional to NHC, are provided by other bodies including private companies and parastatal organizations.
Banks /Mortgage Companies and other financial institutions are providing loans in the housing sector. However most of low income households are not able to qualify for mortgaged loans. Microfinance institutions serve these households, though loans are mostly on short term basis.
In this view, we observe that currently, Tanzania has no social housing projects. 5

6. 5. THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS IN DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL HOUSING IN TANZANIA6
The government has played a role of motivating other players to play in the housing sector
Due to high need of housing in the country and low income levels of most households, more engagement of the government is certainly very much needed
The role of non-governmental organization is also very critical; this may include subsidization of housing costs, provision of technical support, dissemination of housing needs information (like prices of building materials, information on sources of funding) and lobbying for better housing policies.
Collaboration among various stakeholders in the housing industry is also important. (For example, Tanzania Housing Microfinance Working Group) 6

7. THANK YOU.
IHA Secretariat 7