CHAMWE KAIRA
Simonis Storm says the availability of serviced land has emerged as a fundamental constraint on Windhoek’s building activity, with two recent government interventions potentially expanding the supply of residential erven.
The research house said a persistent gap between building plan approvals and completions had often been attributed to subcontractor capacity, materials costs and developer financing, but argued that without serviced erven, construction cannot expand regardless of the availability of capital or labour.
In August 2026, the City of Windhoek confirmed a debt-for-land swap that converts N$357.8 million of historical municipal debt into the transfer of 423 hectares of land to the state.
According to Simonis Storm, the arrangement settles the municipality’s liabilities and restores its borrowing capacity while unlocking more than 6 000 residential erven across the Khomas Region.
The first phase is expected to release about 4 856 plots in Havana and Groot Aub, while a second phase is earmarked for the Independence Stadium precinct.
The swap is framed as supporting the Sixth National Development Plan’s objectives on land access and housing.
The development follows a larger regional commitment announced in June 2026 by Khomas governor Sam Nujoma, under which more than N$1.7 billion is to be directed towards housing, land servicing, sanitation and water infrastructure during the 2026/27 financial year.
The funding includes N$750 million from the ministry of urban and rural development for informal settlement upgrading, N$296.4 million in City of Windhoek capital expenditure and N$82 million from the National Housing Enterprise, alongside smaller allocations for boreholes and peri-urban electrification.
The programme targets 11 226 proposed residential plots across 18 townships, including Cimbebasia, Otjomuise, Rocky Crest, Havana, Goreangab and Okahandja Park.
The two programmes together represent more than 17 000 proposed plots, although Simonis Storm cautioned that their impact will depend on the pace at which the land is actually serviced and absorbed into the building pipeline.
The research house said the land initiatives complement recent capital-side developments, including the Government Institutions Pension Fund’s real estate mobilisation and broader funding lines from the National Housing Enterprise.
It said execution remained a key risk. The ministry of urban and rural development’s N$750 million informal settlement allocation has reportedly faced intergovernmental coordination challenges, while the municipality’s housing programmes have delivered only a few hundred units annually against a land waiting list numbering in the tens of thousands.
The water and wastewater master plan supporting the broader build-out is a 20-year undertaking estimated at N$11.72 billion.
Simonis Storm said the 11 226 proposed plots would take years to fully service and enter the approval pipeline at Windhoek’s current pace of about 150 to 250 approvals a month.
