An Investigation of the Role of Private Property Developers in Provision of Housing in Gaborone, Botswana
Abstract
Housing is one of the basic needs in a continually developing world. Botswana has been experiencing rapid urbanization in Gaborone leading to housing backlog caused by the fact that housing supply cannot commensurate the “sky-rocket†demand for housing. This in turn leads to inadequate provision of affordable housing. Private property developers have been trying to meet the demand for housing especially for middle income group. The purpose of the study was to establish the contribution of private property developers in the provision of housing in Botswana. The research objectives were to establish the role of private property developers in housing provision and the challenges that private property developers encounter in housing provision in Botswana. Data was collected from 14 private property developers out of the 20 that were identified translating into 70 per cent response rate. The data was collected using the questionnaire which was self-administered to the private property developers who met the criteria of having developed 50 houses in Gaborone through purposively sampling technique. Data analysis was using Microsoft Excel. The findings show that the role of private property developers in housing provision is average. The shortage of serviced land coupled with the excessive infrastructure costs were the major challenges affecting private property developers’ efforts in the provision of housing. The implication of the findings on society is that the shortage of housing in the city will continue to exist. The other implication is that private property developers will continue to struggle as long as there are no interventions from government in form of policy formulation.
Keywords: Private property developers, housing, role, housing provision, Gaborone, Botswana.
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