CBZ begins $12m Vic Falls housing project

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls

SERVICING of roads and sewer infrastructure under the CBZ Holdings $12 million housing project in Victoria Falls has started with the financial institution saying actual work on housing structures will start in March next year.

The bank unveiled a $12 million housing project in the resort town targeting close to 1 174 residential stands as part of its efforts to complement Government’s efforts to provide houses to low income earners.

Of these about 1 008 will be high density and the remaining 166 stands being medium density housing in line with the financial institution’s strategy to deliver low cost housing.

The housing project covers the Buffer Zone between Mkhosana and Chinotimba suburbs as well as along Victoria Falls-Kazungula Road and south of Mkhosana.

CBZ Holdings chief executive Mr Never Nyemudzo led a team from the bank on a tour of the project last week accompanied by municipality housing director Mr Lot Siatimbula.

He said all the stands had been taken and the bank was now working on mortgages for beneficiaries who will soon be announced once the process is completed.

“We came to assess progress to see how far we have gone with roads, sewer and water and to see how many people from the waiting list have been forwarded to the bank. I am glad to announce that all stands have been taken up.

“When we launched in July we made some promises and we can only achieve these by monitoring progress. So far tremendous progress has been made as we have opened roads everywhere and out of the 15km we are supposed to do, 8km has been worked on,” said Mr Nyemudzo.

The roads have been surfaced with the first two bases before the final surface.

Workmen are busy on the ground laying storm drain pipes, surfacing roads and clearing land.
Engineers said they managed to get material for the first two bases from within a 12km radius casting fears the project was going to be costly because of unavailability of material due to the type of soils around Victoria Falls.

Mr Nyemudzo assured beneficiaries that the project would be successful after teething problems that threatened it were solved when the bank, municipality and residents’ leaders convened.

“What’s important to residents is our promise to deliver a quality product and the kind of progress made so far should bring confidence to them.

We are happy with progress and some of the residents that have been assessed. The challenges were only a question of communication breakdown and that has been ironed out,” he said.

He added: “The actual servicing of the stands could start in March next year depending on the municipality approving completed stages and parallel development.”

Mr Siatimbula said he was happy with progress so far.

“Construction is a process involving what we call pre-construction, which can last about five months and we should also consider the rainy season.

As a municipality we have no problem with parallel development,” he said.

CBZ has channelled $70 million towards various low, medium and high density housing schemes as a private developer or in conjunction with municipalities across Zimbabwe.

CBZ developed more than 1 000 stands in Gweru and also serviced residential stands in the Grange in Harare, Chikanga in Mutare, Mbizo in Kwekwe, while similar plans are underway in Bulawayo and Marondera as the bank seeks to contribute to housing delivery as espoused in the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.

The national housing backlog is more than 1,2 million. The housing waiting list in Victoria Falls currently stands at 15 000.

@ncubeleon

Source: CBZ begins $12m Vic Falls housing project (31/10/16)