Redcliff targets 30 000 housing units by 2023

REDCLIFF Municipality has set an ambitious target of developing 30 000 housing units by 2023 as part of its efforts to attain city status.

The satellite town has about 9 000 houses, a number the council feels has also resulted in poor revenue inflows.

Redcliff Mayor Councillor Freddy Kapuya said the municipality was aiming for city status and needed to have at least 30 000 houses.

“We want to increase the number of houses in the town to 30 000 by 2023 as we seek to upgrade to a city,” he said. “We have also realised that the few houses we have are impacting negatively on our revenue collection. Therefore, having more houses will result in significant revenue inflows.” Clr Kapuya said the local authority had entered into a public-private partnership with private land developers to service land to increase the number of houses in the town.

He said they were hoping to have at least 5 000 houses constructed every year for the next five years for them to reach the intended target of 30 000 units.

“We have entered into private public partnerships with local private developers who have the equipment to service the land,” said Clr Kapuya.

“Under the arrangement, we are saying council will have 40 percent of all the serviced stands while the huge chunk is given to the developer to sell.”

Clr Kapuya said the town council was developing about 5 000 stands for residents. “There is a bit of revenue, which is coming from the sale of stands and as we speak we have run out of serviced stands in Redcliff, but the good thing is that we are the only local authority with vast tracts of land of our own,” he said.

“As we speak, we are developing about 5 000 stands.”

Clr Kapuya said council wanted to ensure the stands were well serviced, had proper roads, water and sewer systems.

He said with the prospects of Ziscosteel revival, a boom in infrastructural development was in the offing.