The Federal Housing Corporation–re-established a year ago–has unveiled its first mega project of constructing 16,173 resident houses in Addis Ababa at an estimated cost of 33 billion birr, The Reporter has learnt.
Ahead of the launch of the housing project, the corporation has organized a day-long consultative workshop at Capital Hotel last week where various stakeholders discussed the designs of the project as well as related issues.
According to officials of the Corporation, out of the total planned 16,173 houses around 50 percent is designated to senior government officials and employees (civil servants) while the remaining 50 percent are various kinds of rental houses for business services.
On the side-line of the workshop, in an exclusive interview with The Reporter, Deputy CEO of the Housing Corporation, Girum Birhanu said: “The planned houses comprises of villas and various high-rise apartments ranging from 9 to 21-storeys.”
Around 5,088 houses–with a total area of 127, 200 sq.m (25 sq.m per house) at the ground and first floor–are exclusively dedicated to business and rental services.
The deputy CEO further told The Reporter, the construction of the apartments which is still at its early stages require around 26.4 hectares of land.
According to Girum, parts of the project will be sited on the old houses, under the corporation’s possession; while the remaining project will be constructed on a new land which is expected to be provided by the city administration.
Upon the projects commencement, the villas are expected to be ready within 12 to 18 months, while construction of the apartments is expected to take 24 to 36 months.
According to the Corporation, the project’s financing is expected to be covered partially by government’s budget while additional finance is expected from local sources, mainly from bank loans.
According to the information from Addis Ababa City Administration, over 755, 535 house seekers have been registered for low-cost housing schemes under 20/80 program. Out of these, 126, 529 are government employees. But, no evidence is collected on how many employees are under the federal government.
According to the Ministry of Public Service and Human Resource Development, the total number of federal government employees excluding universities and public enterprises are estimated to be 86, 263
