China housing developer to start building in Area 49

Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) has identified Area 49 Sector 7 as the site for the first 1,000 houses to be built under a joint housing project between the corporation and Henan Guoji Company from China.

Officials from MHC and Henan Guoji visited the location last Wednesday prior to registration of the joint venture before the end of this month.

Henan Guoji General Manager, Xu Mingzheng, who was part of the visiting team — said the project will take off by January next year with the first lot scheduled for completion by November of the same year.

He said the company is going to source funding from a Chinese bank for the construction of the houses.

“The cost of each of the houses is going to be known soon after completion of the project,” said Xu, through an interpreter.

The whole project has plan for the construction 5,000 houses and MHC recently indicated that the venture will see the construction of 1,000 houses every year until the desired number is reached.

Minister of Lands and Housing Development, Henry Phoya, said during the tour that government will facilitate availability of loans from financial institutions to help people pay for the houses.

“Since these houses are meant to assist the poor, we are going to make sure that only the deserving people access them by linking them with financial institutions,” said Phoya.

Phoya said that Henan Guoji has a proven track record in housing construction across the world hence, there was no need for people to worry about quality and durability of the houses to be constructed.

He said the project is going to drastically help solve housing problems in the urban areas which at the moment are very serious.

MHC General Manager, Wezi Mkandawire, said that apart from land –MHC is going to provide electricity and water into the project period.