The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu
Listed financial institution – ZB Financial Holdings Limited (ZBFH) – is set to resume its US$3,8 million Beitbridge housing project following the success of its cluster housing project in Harare, a top official has said.
ZBFH group corporate services head Mr Shadowsight Chiganze recently told The Sunday Mail Business that the Beitbridge housing project had been put on hold to allow full concentration on the Harare, Hatfield housing project.
The resumption of the property scheme in Beitbridge is set to result in the establishment of one of the biggest residential suburbs in the border town.
“Now that we have completed our Hatfield cluster houses, we would like to resume our Beitbridge housing project which was on hold,” said Mr Chiganze. “We expect it to resume any time from now, the project will see us completing 150 housing units in Beitbridge.
“We expect to sell the houses at US$25 000 per unit, but we are yet to decide the approach we are going to take, that is whether to sell them as complete housing units or fully serviced stands. In many instances we have gone for completed units.
“We have already completed servicing the land, what is now left is for us to start building some structures there, but this is a new market altogether so we will see how it goes.”
Mr Chiganze said the houses could be bought under a 25-year mortgage bond upon payment of a deposit of 25 percent of the total value.
ZBFH has also structured the mortgage financing for house improvements payable over 10 years. In a volatile market where the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has slumped by more than 12 percent since the beginning of the year, a combination of pent-up demand from local home seekers and freed-up land for investments – particularly in peri-urban areas – has created a lucrative investment avenue for investors.
While ZBFH is competing strongly in Harare against Fidelity Life Assurance, FBC Holdings and Old Mutual Zimbabwe, among other companies; it has seen the need to spread to the border town of Beitbridge where, it says, there is less competition. The group is looking for partnerships with real estate agents across the country in selling its houses in Hatfield and it would replicate the model for its other properties.
The Hatfield housing units range from US$122 000 to US$135 000, depending on the finishes in the house.
The group says it has a loan facility of close to US$12 million for the purchase of houses across the country.
