Saturday 8 February 2020

SALE OF STANDS IN MASVINGO SUSPENDED

Masvingo City Council has suspended selling residential stands citing the inflationary environment.

In an interview yesterday, Masvingo Housing and Community Services director Mr Levison Nzvura said it was now difficult to peg suitable prices on residential stands given the economic environment.

He said there was need to evaluate the costs while factoring in inflation.

“We have put on hold the selling residential stands because of the inflationary environment in the country,” said Mr Nzvura.

“It has become difficult to come up with a cost-effective pricing of our residential stands as the rates keep changing.”

He said a committee on housing will deliberate on the issue before the matter is taken to full council which should come up with a resolution on the matter.

“We want to first evaluate the costs of servicing of the stands.

“We have to know the price of pipes and cost of constructing the roads and other amenities before we come up with the price we think is suitable. A full council meeting will make a resolution on the pricing and the cost agreed will be what is expected from those seeking residential stands,” he said.

Mr Nzvura said council will sell the stands in local currency and not in foreign currency as many private land developers are doing.

“We are a quasi-government entity and we are not allowed to sell our stands in forex. People could have been confused by rates that are circulating on social media suggesting that residential stands are sold in forex.

“We are not a cooperative but a local authority answerable to the country’s statutes. There is no way we will short-change our residents in need of housing through pegging our stands in forex.”

He said the city’s housing backlog stood at 12 000 and efforts were being made to reduce it through opening up more land for housing at Rujeko D and Rhodene. Chronicle

0 comments:

Post a Comment