One hundred million?

The government is yet to finish leaking its wounds as it were with its inability to provide the thousands of housing for the lower-income groups as another initiative has come up in the posh resort town of Kribi.

This time, the talk is about the construction of over 3500 so-called easy-to-access lodging which addresses the concerns of members of the middle-level income bracket. With the numerous projects the city of Kribi is in the phase of construction, one could only imagine this is one project that will certainly meet the needs of the expected army of home searchers coming along with all the projects programmed in Kribi will bring about.

But there is one important act government has not yet carried out: evaluating the other numerous projects it initiated in the country’s main cities such as Yaounde and Douala and even in such secondary cities as Ebolowa, Bamenda, Limbe and even Kribi, all enveloped in the very beautiful name of low-cost housing.

Objectively the programme looks like a flop with very little to show by way of a robust undertaking in which we see entire neighbourhoods sprawling, as we see elsewhere, with a skyline full of ready apartments. The project in Yaounde’s northern district of Olembe is one that attests to this state of affairs. So, Kribi, for all it offers in terms of decent housing, especially on the seafront or even simply around it, could be a very attractive offer.

Residents of Kribi are yet to come to terms with an initial low-cost housing project which is taking too much time to get to fruition. Maybe the mention of the involvement of an Italian consortium in the project gives some credibility; but the fact that each apartment will go for not less than FCFA 100 Million as advanced by the project conceivers is certainly a cause for concern.

Of even more concern is the fact that the project has the blessing of the government. How can a government, already unable to help provide low-cost housing expect to promote a project which seeks to sell houses at FCFA 100 Million? There are hundreds of empty apartments in Yaounde and Douala constructed under this programme that are unoccupied simply because many potential occupants or buyers believe the 25 000 FCFA monthly installments required is far beyond their reach.

Kribi has new business opportunities, but it is not yet an Eldorado of the scope where one expects that thousands of apartments selling above what a middle-class Cameroonian can afford can be easily sold. That is an illusion for now.

Kribi offers new and interesting opportunities for up-market investors in the housing market; but it is certainly abusive to describe such an initiative as addressing the concerns of low-cost housing? What is certain today is that and apartment, no matter how comfortable it is, cannot go for a low-cost housing unit when it sells for FCFA 100 Million.