Government employees and associations gathered voluntarily longing to get houses, are met with a couple of new modalities to develop communal housing projects. The promise Mayor Adanech Abiebie made to meet the increasing demand in the capital through novel mechanisms nearly six months ago, seems to be kept on the realisation of the modalities forwarded by the Addis Abeba City Administration and Addis Abeba Cooperative Agency.

The Administration is set to offer plots of land for housing developments to government employee unions who manage to lock in 10pc-15pc savings at a Bank and can prove they are without title deeds. The second modality, drafted by the Agency, aims to facilitate plots of land for unions of individuals who had registered for condominium houses a decade ago but have not received homes despite remaining in the system.

Tilahun Worku, chief of the City Administration cabinet, says this is one of the several modalities they have been working on. He believes the challenge for most civil servants would be accessing bank financing for construction.

"We understand housing is a problem for city residents," he told Fortune.

The development modality for government employees requires being a citizen employed within the capital with no previous home ownership. The allotment of land for the housing projects is determined in proportion to the number of people within the union cooperatives and their intended project sizes. The least number of members is 40 for a four-storey building, while the highest is 150 members for a two-basement complex with 15 floors.

Samuel Mitiku is one of the many eagerly awaiting the realisation of this modality. He works for the Social Affairs Bureau in the City Administration. After learning that the Administration was working to support employees in building homes, he has organised 80 people thus far and hopes to add ten more before requesting financial contributions.

"We're aiming for a nine-storey building," he told Fortune.

Samuel hopes the proposed modality will be enforced as rent and galloping inflation have him strapped for cash.

According to the bill drafted by the City Administration, the cost of a single unit begins at 479,880 Br for a 60sqm single bedroom, with a three-bedroom 105sqm unit estimated to cost 1.5 million Br.

The other housing modality ushered in by the Agency is tabled at the Ministry of Justice, waiting for approval.