By Festus Adebayo
Across Africa, political campaigns are often dominated by promises about roads, power, education, security, agriculture, jobs and healthcare. These are all important. But one issue that is still not receiving the political attention it deserves is housing.
Housing should no longer be treated as a minor campaign promise or a responsibility to be left entirely to a minister, ministry or housing agency. It must become a presidential priority and a major component of the manifesto of every serious political candidate seeking to govern an African country.
The reason is simple: housing touches almost every part of national life.
A country cannot claim to be serious about poverty reduction when millions of its citizens live in overcrowded, unsafe or unaffordable accommodation. It cannot talk about job creation without recognising the enormous employment opportunities in housing and construction. It cannot discuss urban development without addressing where people will live. It cannot talk about healthcare while families live in unhealthy environments. And it cannot promise economic growth while ignoring one of the largest potential drivers of investment, manufacturing and household wealth.
Housing is not merely a social issue. It is an economic, political, security and development issue.
Housing Is Too Important to Be Left to a Ministry Alone
One of the major reasons housing has struggled in many African countries is that it is often treated as the responsibility of a single ministry.
That approach is inadequate.
Housing delivery requires the cooperation of finance ministries, central banks, land agencies, infrastructure authorities, local governments, planning institutions, mortgage institutions, private developers and manufacturers of building materials.
Only the president or head of government has the authority to bring all these institutions together around a common national housing agenda.
This is why housing must be driven from the highest level of government.
The president must set the direction, establish measurable targets, demand accountability and ensure that housing is connected to national economic planning.
Where housing is treated merely as the programme of a minister, it can easily become isolated, underfunded or abandoned whenever political leadership changes.
Political Candidates Must Tell Citizens Their Housing Plans
During elections, political candidates should no longer be allowed to make vague statements such as, “We will provide affordable housing.”
Citizens deserve much more.
Every serious presidential candidate should explain clearly how his or her government intends to address land, mortgages, rental housing, urban planning, slum upgrading, infrastructure, building materials and housing for low-income families.
A political manifesto should answer practical questions.
How much land will be made available for housing?
How will land titles be made faster and cheaper?
What will be done to reduce mortgage interest rates?
How will first-time homeowners be supported?
What is the plan for people who cannot qualify for mortgages?
How will rental housing be improved?
What incentives will be provided to developers producing affordable homes?
How will local production of building materials be supported?
How will informal settlements be upgraded?
These are the kinds of questions political candidates should be required to address before asking citizens for their votes.
Housing Should Become an Election Issue
In many advanced economies, housing is a major electoral issue because voters understand how directly it affects their lives.
Rent levels, mortgage rates, housing supply, planning regulations and homelessness frequently become subjects of national political debate.
Africa must move in the same direction.
Housing stakeholders, professional bodies, civil society organisations, the media and citizens must begin asking political candidates difficult questions about housing.
Presidential debates should include dedicated discussions on housing and urban development.
Political parties should establish detailed housing policies rather than treating housing as a paragraph hidden somewhere inside a lengthy manifesto.
Candidates who want to govern rapidly growing African cities must show that they understand where future populations will live.
Housing Is One of the Fastest Routes to Job Creation
Any political candidate promising mass employment should have a serious housing policy.
The housing sector creates jobs across an enormous value chain.
Every major housing development requires architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, estate surveyors, town planners, builders, artisans, electricians, plumbers, welders, painters, transporters and labourers.
It also creates demand for cement, steel, roofing materials, doors, windows, furniture, tiles, sanitary products, electrical fittings and countless other locally manufactured goods.
A government that stimulates large-scale housing development can therefore create jobs far beyond the construction site.
This makes housing one of the strongest tools available to governments seeking to reduce unemployment.
Housing Can Drive Industrial Development
Africa continues to import many products that could be manufactured locally.
A large and sustained national housing programme can create the demand necessary to expand domestic manufacturing.
If millions of houses are required over the coming decades, then Africa will also require enormous quantities of cement, steel, glass, doors, windows, roofing sheets, paint, tiles, furniture and electrical products.
Political leaders should therefore connect housing policy with industrial policy.
Housing should become a platform for supporting local manufacturers, encouraging technological innovation and creating stronger domestic supply chains.
A Presidential Housing Agenda Must Go Beyond Building Houses
Another mistake political candidates must avoid is reducing housing policy to promises of constructing a particular number of houses.
Building houses is important, but the real objective should be to create a functioning housing market.
Government should focus on creating the conditions that enable individuals, cooperatives, developers and investors to produce housing at scale.
That includes serviced land, infrastructure, affordable finance, predictable approvals, efficient land registries, transparent regulations and incentives for affordable development.
The success of a housing policy should not be measured simply by how many government-built houses are commissioned.
It should be measured by whether ordinary citizens find it easier to rent, buy, build or finance a decent home.
Housing Must Be Integrated With Transportation and Urban Planning
Africa’s housing future cannot be separated from the future of its cities.
Many households are forced to live far from employment centres because housing closer to cities is unaffordable. They then spend significant portions of their income and time commuting.
This reduces productivity and worsens household poverty.
Presidential housing policies must therefore integrate housing with transportation, infrastructure and urban planning.
New residential areas should not be created without roads, water, drainage, schools, healthcare facilities, employment opportunities and public transportation.
A house located in the wrong place without supporting infrastructure is not truly affordable.
Housing Policy Must Protect Low-Income Citizens
The private sector has an important role in housing delivery, but markets alone will not adequately serve every household.
Governments have a responsibility to support citizens at the lower end of the income ladder.
Political manifestos should therefore contain clear proposals for social housing, rental support, rent-to-own schemes, incremental housing, cooperative housing and targeted subsidies where necessary.
Housing policy must recognise that not every citizen can immediately purchase a home.
The goal should be to ensure that every family has access to decent and secure accommodation, whether through ownership or rental.
Housing Institutions Must Be Reformed
Presidential candidates should also commit themselves to reforming housing institutions.
Many housing agencies across Africa suffer from weak governance, political interference, bureaucracy, poor accountability and, in some cases, corruption.
A serious national housing agenda requires strong institutions led by competent professionals.
Public housing agencies should operate transparently. Land allocation, procurement, beneficiary selection and expenditure must be open to scrutiny.
A housing policy cannot succeed when institutions created to implement it are inefficient or compromised.
Housing Targets Must Be Measurable
Political promises must also become measurable.
Instead of simply promising “affordable housing,” candidates should state what they intend to achieve within their term.
Targets could include the number of serviced plots to be provided, the reduction in land title processing time, the expansion of mortgage access, the number of informal settlements to be upgraded or the volume of private housing investment to be stimulated.
Annual progress reports should then be published.
Citizens must be able to compare campaign promises with actual performance.
Africa Needs a New Political Conversation About Housing
The future of African cities will largely depend on decisions being made today.
Africa’s population is young and growing rapidly. Millions of new households will be formed over the coming decades.
Those families will require somewhere to live.
If governments fail to plan properly, housing shortages will worsen, rents will increase, informal settlements will expand and infrastructure will come under even greater pressure.
But if housing becomes a presidential priority, the challenge can become an enormous economic opportunity.
Africa can build new cities, regenerate old neighbourhoods, create millions of jobs, strengthen manufacturing, expand homeownership and improve the quality of life of its people.
That transformation will require political leadership.
The Time Has Come to Ask Every Candidate: What Is Your Housing Plan?
As elections approach across African countries, voters should begin asking every presidential candidate a simple question:
What exactly is your housing plan?
Not a slogan.
Not a promise to build a few estates.
Not another government project designed primarily for political publicity.
Citizens should demand a comprehensive strategy covering land, housing finance, infrastructure, rental housing, urban planning, building materials, informal settlements and institutional reform.
Housing must become part of the political conversation because housing affects everyone.
The candidate who wants to lead a country must explain how the citizens of that country will live.
For too long, housing has remained on the margins of political manifestos.
It is time to move it to the centre.
Every credible political party should have a comprehensive housing agenda. Every presidential candidate should be questioned on housing. And every incoming government should recognise that providing an enabling environment for decent, affordable and sustainable housing is not merely a sectoral responsibility.
It is one of the fundamental responsibilities of leadership.
