No Housing for the Majority?
A housing research seminar held at the Bank of Namibia has confirmed that most citizens cannot afford formal housing.
The current system – where 70% of Namibians are priced out of formal housing – is, however, not a ‘market failure’.
It is the capitalist market working exactly as designed.
It is the predictable outcome of a housing market built on colonial land theft, financialisation of housing by commercial banks and property developers, a wage regime that keeps the working-class poor and state policies that treat housing as a commodity, not a social right.
The housing market is doing what capitalist markets do: allocating homes to those with money and excluding those without.
The housing market in Namibia has been captured by rich elites, private banks and speculators. This is social class capture.
Housing is no longer built for working people, but as an investment vehicle for the wealthy.
Private banks, of course, profit from high prices and long-term debt from inflated mortgages.
In the final analysis, land becomes a speculative asset, not a social good.
This is the same pattern seen all over the world – financialisation of housing.
The wage crisis, however, is the real housing crisis.
When 70–75% of Namibians earn less than N$5 000 per month, it is mathematically impossible for them to enter a mortgage market where the ‘small segment’ starts at N$900 000.
This is not a glitch. It is structural exclusion.
Working people cannot qualify for mortgages and are pushed into informal settlements.
This is not a housing problem alone; it is a labour exploitation issue as well.
No housing policy can succeed without economic justice.
That is why, for example, a living wage should be tied to the urban cost of living. Housing justice requires income justice.
Workers produce wealth but cannot afford to live in the cities where they work.
But urbanisation is not the cause. It is the symptom.
Government officials often blame rapid urbanisation, migration to towns and rising construction costs.
However, people move to cities because rural economies were never rebuilt after colonial dispossession and communal land remains underdeveloped, while the state has not invested in rural industries or cooperatives.
Namibia’s economy forces people into cities while refusing to house them.
If anything, the Namibian state’s response (Sixth National Development Plan targets) is far too small.
The government aims to build 55 000 houses, service 50 000 plots and reduce the informal settlement population from 28% to 14%.
However, the backlog stands at 300 000 units and the plan covers less than 20% of the need.
Furthermore, serviced land is still sold at market prices, houses built under public-private partnerships remain unaffordable and the state continues to rely on private developers and banks.
This is not a transformative housing policy. It is incrementalism in the face of a structural crisis.
The root cause is that land and housing remain commodified.
The crisis cannot be solved until Namibia confronts colonial land ownership patterns, private control of urban land, commercial bank dominance over housing finance and profit-driven construction models
The financial capture of housing must be dismantled through strict anti‑speculation laws, taxes on empty houses and public control of urban land.
Housing must serve people, not profit. A transformative housing agenda would include massive state-led public housing, expropriation or compulsory purchase of unused urban land, wage restructuring, rent control, community-led housing cooperatives and decentralised development.
The fundamental truth is that Namibia’s housing crisis is a class crisis. This is about a system that protects big business and punishes workers.
Namibia does not have a housing shortage. It has a shortage of justice, redistribution and political will.
– The authors are members of the Marxist Group of Namibia.
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المصدر: The Namibian