- Tsholofelo apartments in Gabs are being snapped up
- 1068 units planned for Gabs, F/town, Maun, Kazungula, Pilane and Letlhakane
- Rental revenues bolster P64m
GAZETTE REPORTER
Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) is happy with the uptake of its low income Tsholofelo projects and has a plan to build similar apartments in Gaborone Block 7, Acting Chairman Moemedi Gabana and General Manager Pascaline Sefawe, have said.
Most of the apartments Tsholofelo West and Tsholofelo East have been bought, hence BHC is encouraged to build more for this market category.
“An additional 114 units of a similar type will be built in Gaborone,” Gabana and Sefawe say in BHC’s audited financial results for the year that ended 31 March 2022 released recently. “The Corporation plans to start 1068 units in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun, Kazungula, Pilane and Letlhakane during 2022/23 financial year.”
They say BHC will pursue its strategy to diversify revenue streams despite both management income and professional fees being challenged by prevailing economic conditions that have seen its major client, the government, curtailing spending.
“The Corporation intends to significantly increase the facilities management income stream by undertaking more third-party maintenance projects,” they note. “The Corporation is confident that once the economy improves, professional fees income stream will start growing as some of the suspended third party projects would be undertaken.”
BHC saw its profit increasing from P1 million in the prior year to P64 million for the year under review. Gabana and Sefawe attribute this significant increase in profitability to high rental revenue, high sales of investment properties that generated a high average margin of 65 percent and impairment reversals.
They noted that rental revenue increased by 15 percent to P240 million from P209 million recorded in the prior year. “The increase was mainly due to the second-year rental adjustment of the on-going five years’ rental increase to get to 80 percent of market rate,” they explain.
“New properties were also added to investment properties portfolio. During the period under review, rental revenue surpassed sales revenue as the major revenue stream for the Corporation. The total rental stock at the end of the reporting period was 9 901 units and these units are rented to house Batswana across the country.”
During the period under review, BHC delivered 672 houses under the Self-Help Housing Agency (SHHA) scheme. “At the end of the financial year, 459 SHHA houses were at different stages of construction and are all expected to be delivered in the next financial year,” Gabana and Sefawe say in the report.
“In the 2022/23 financial year, 301 additional houses will be started under this scheme across different constituencies.”