Addis dwellers feel their hopes being dashed, politicians cherish luxury apartments

A few months ago, many residents of Addis Ababa were baffled by a careless comment made by a government official, who was giving a grand tour to other senior government officials of a luxurious apartment complex recently completed and inaugurated by the Federal Housing Corporation. Those luxurious duplex apartments in Addis Ababa were developed to serve as residences to high ranking federal government officials. The said official made a very insensitive remark (which was televised on national TV) saying that the idea behind carrying out that particular development project was to “show that Ethiopians can actually live in such luxury houses” when the country “prospers”. Considering the magnitude of the housing crisis in Addis Ababa, anybody hearing such comments would be outraged. The fact that a whole block with 11 stories consists of only 5 super spacious duplex apartments and the complex comes with amenities such as parking spaces enough for over 800 vehicles, a swimming pool, sports field, and a gymnasium has stirred controversy among city dwellers, who are suffering as a result of lack of decent housing in the city. The corporation, whose role was largely limited to administering and offering state-owned houses and apartments for lease in Addis Ababa and other major cities such as Dire Dawa, started undertaking such development projects only 3 years ago.

For “a middle class” Ethiopian family living in Addis Ababa, finding a good house for rent in Addis Ababa at an affordable rental price is becoming increasingly challenging year after year. They cannot even find a decent apartment for rent in Addis Ababa even if they were to spend their entire monthly income on rent alone and on nothing else. For this reason, a lot of such families can only afford to lease a rundown and tiny apartment units, commonly known as condominiums. In Ethiopian context, the name condominium is synonymous with low cost housing project launched by the government nearly 20 years ago. The quality of the condominiums is quite deplorable but people will kill to get one.

There are people who have been registered and have been saving their hard-earned money in a special blocked savings account since 2005 in the hope of one day owning a condo they can call home in Addis Ababa. However, some folks have still not received keys to their condo 17 years later. A few who spoke to The Reporter, a weekly paper in Addis Ababa, expressed their frustration over the Addis Ababa City Administration’s failure to fulfil its promises. According to the reporter a sense of hopelessness was written all over the faces of those that gave the paper interviews. They all spoke of the hardship they have to go through month to month since they have to save money toward the housing scheme while also paying rent for a house or apartment in Addis Ababa, which is very expensive. Some residents, who endured the hardship for more than a decade have quit the program and withdrew their money since they have lost all hope in the government’s capability and commitment in delivering on its promises. They have done so knowing that they will never have another shot at getting registered again.

According to some experts, who have been watching the housing issue in Addis Ababa quite closely, the decisions made by such people are understandable. A lecturer at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development, who spoke to The Reporter, stated that the problem in Addis Ababa is magnified as a large majority of the middle and lower class households have totally run out of options to own any type of property unless they get some kind of help from the government. However, the hopes of that happening is quite grim as the city administration is already in trouble since it has accumulated a loan of over 54 billion Birr and has managed to transfer condo keys only to less than a third of the number of people it registered in two rounds, which is nearly a million people. As a result, the housing crisis in the city is only going to get worse at least in the short and medium-term and we may soon start seeing even middle class families and young professionals struggling to be able to find decent apartments or houses for rent in Addis Ababa that is affordable to them.

Source: https://www.ethiopianproperties.com