A lottery draw last week saw close to 25,000 condominium units assigned to Addis Abeba's residents under the municipality's troubled low-cost housing scheme. The scheme began in the late 1990s after the federal government partnered with the German technical cooperation, GIZ, to experiment with the construction of low-cost dwellings. A pilot project was launched in the Gerji area. The subsequent years saw the construction of 175,000 units in Addis Abeba scattered all over the city, thereby changing the city's urban character. Officials had registered around 300,000 people for housing in the first round in 2005; another round eight years later brought the figure close to one million. However, hundreds of thousands have yet to receive housing due to delays and financial issues.
Loading your updates...