Condominium Housing in Ethiopia: The Integrated Housing Development Programme

This publication is part of a series that documents country experiences of designing and implementing affordable housing programmes, and seeks to provide up-to-date information on country specific housing programmes that address housing shortages, thus reducing slum formation and growth and improving housing conditions.

This volume documents the government-led, low- and middle-income housing programme that started in 2005 with the aim of finding practical solutions to the country’s previously uncoordinated and inefficient housing sector. This initiative, the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP), aims to build at least 400,000 housing units and create 200,000 new jobs, and support up to 10,000 micro and small enterprises to enhance the capacity of the construction industry.

Part I presents a brief history of the housing sector, describing the state of Ethiopian housing prior to the setting up of IHDP. The authors point out that due to the government’s lack of national commitment to land and housing development for the low-income sector, there was no coherent approach or action towards land and housing provision. This often led to ad hoc policies and measures that resulted in the proliferation of informal and unauthorized housing. The government tried to improve the situation by nationalizing urban land and housing in 1975, but although this helped to bring down the cost of rentals, it did not improve the poor’s access to affordable housing. Part I further provides a detailed overview of the current Ethiopian housing sector, highlighting the challenges it faces and helping to put into perspective the significance of the IHDP.

Part II describes the origins, design, implementation and importance of the Integrated Housing Development Programme. The programme is significant for a number of reasons, including the large-scale nature of the housing intervention, the targeting of poor people, the potential of improved access to homeownership acting as an effective way of preventing slums, and the stimulus to the national economy from improved housing. Two case studies, in Bole Gerji and Lideta, both in Addis Ababa, are presented to enable the readers to get an appreciation of how the IHDP projects are implemented on the ground. Bole Gerji was the first condominium project to be built in Ethiopia and was built on a brownfield site; Lideta was an inner-city upgrading project and the first to use a ground floor plus seven storeys condominium design.

In Part III, the authors demonstrate the positive impact of the programme so far on the housing sector in Ethiopia, and how it has contributed to the physical improvement of the housing and urban environments. The authors also observe that the IHDP has had a significant impact on the capacity of the construction industry, on skilled labour, the manufacturing industry and on transport. The project has managed to deliver at least 171,000 housing units at low cost, and the government suggests that the programme has contributed significantly to GDP. Despite the successes, the programme has also faced a number of challenges: the high cost of units for low-income households; the unsustainable nature of the project finance; beneficiary consultation and management; project-specific issues related to location, design and quality; and lack of post-occupancy monitoring and evaluation.

Part IV draws together the key lessons. The positive lessons are that there is a need for political commitment and for tenure security for low-income households. The challenges faced in the implementation of large-scale, low-cost housing projects are highlighted – for instance, the inability of the poorest people to afford the condominium housing – as is the need for serious attention to be given to the affordability problem, to prevent low-income households from being excluded.