The Addis Abeba Land Administration and Construction Permit Authority has allotted 610.1ht plot of land from its land bank for the fiscal year of 2011/12, out of which 60ht is to be transferred to the private sector through negotiation.
The largest portion of the plot is about 151ht in size, and is reserved for the construction of condominiums.
The authorities estimate that they will collect 1.5 billion Br through the sale of plots, according to the yearly plan of the city.
The allocation of plots is also reserved for businesses, the industrial sector, social services, real estates, and Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
The city also plans to collect 137 million Br from lease advance payments, 7.9 Br from construction permit, 300 million Br from land holding services, 421 million Br from land lease, and 362 million Br from annual lease, while unpaid lease payments amount to 345 million Br.
Construction of condominiums is another priority for the city, which has allocated 151ht for future projects.
After launching the Addis Abeba Housing Development Project Office, in 2004, the city has built over 78,000 condominium houses out of which 50,000 were transferred to low income households, according to research done in 2009 by the Central Statistics Agency (CSA).
In 2010, 485,000 people had applied for condominium housing, while the city only made 10,700 housing units available. It has also transferred 10,000 additional units to low income households.
To date, the city has completed 80,246 condominiums and 16,569 are still under construction, it has transferred 63,677 condominiums during the fiscal year of 2010/11.
This has improved the city’s performance compared to the 2007 fiscal year where there was only a total of 628,986 housing constructions in which the largest share was taken by private proprietors, who have rented out the houses to third parties, CSA research shows.
To meet the high demand of the housing units, the city has projected to construct 50,000 housing units every year upgrading its current 30,000 construction performance starting from the 2011/12 fiscal year, according to the Housing Development Office Plan.
During the 2009/10 fiscal year, the authority has transferred 320ht of plots of which 21.8ht were transferred through negotiation, 178ht through allocation, and 119.4 ht were leased on 15 separate auctions, it has announced.
Out of the total 610.1ht, the authority plans to transfer 270ht of plots at a monthly auction floor. It will also issue title deeds for 68,000 residents of the town which do not have title deeds for their plots. These need to be legally taken from the city administration.
During the last fiscal year, the city planned to redevelop 51 sites in the capital, and has demolished 25ht in the Lideta District area (the first redevelopment project of the city), 25ht in Basha Wolde Chilot, 42ht for the Sheraton expansion, and 5.6ht for the United Nation Economic Commission of (UNECA) on Tito Street, as well as 3.6ht in Olympia and 9.8ht in Wollo Sefer, both of which are located on Africa Avenue. The city also has 75ht of additional pocket areas marked for development projects, and it will clear a 120ht plot for the construction of roads which will begin development in the 2011/12 fiscal year.
In implementing its plans, the city allotted 1.2 billion Br to be paid in compensation to 4,352 people who will be relocated from their settlements. It will also provide condominiums and wereda houses for 8,737 people, while giving out 73.8ht plots for private homeowners with 9,963 construction permits.
In the previous year, the city had reclaimed one million square metres of land belonging to 34 real estate developers in Bole, Yeka, Nifas Silk Lafto, and Kolfe and Kolfe Keranio districts by letters it sent to developers and districts on July 29, 2010.
Its first major move on the real estate industry came when the city took away 60ht plot of land from the developers around the city. The administration was not satisfied with the progress made by developers after having leased city plots since the 2005/06 fiscal year, and, began confiscating undeveloped plots.
A survey conducted by the city administration shows that 125 real estate developers have leased about 550ht of land.
Following the administration’s decision to confiscate land, many developers appealed to the city itself, attributing the delay to the city claiming that it did not deliver the plots on time with necessary infrastructure, such as roads and electricity, which would have enabled them to go directly to construction phases.
The city fined developers by over one million Birr on a case by case scenario. The administration only gave a total of 7,704 construction permits, although it intended to approve 11,680 construction projects in the just ended fiscal year. The city has, however, renewed construction permits to the real estate developers.
Currently, the city is studying to revise land lease prices that are projected to be implemented in the 2011/12 fiscal year.
Source: addisfortune.com