Trapped in a cycle of relentless torment, Meseret Abera 's life has been turned upside down since the ominous notice of eviction arrived four years ago.

Despite her graduate degree and two decades of dedicated service at a public office in Addis Abeba, her meagre monthly income of 7,250 Br offers her few housing options.

With a heavy heart, she is left with the daunting task of finding a place to call home, her gaze fixed on a 6,000 Br rental in the Tulu Dimtu area. As her choices dwindle, she reluctantly considers relocating to the Koye Feche district, a region notorious for lacking essential utilities like water and electricity, a sacrifice she is willing to make to secure a roof over her head.

"I would work for free if housing was provided," she told Fortune.

Meseret collects any form of money available from her siblings to cover expenses for her six-year-old daughter. Albeit remaining unlucky in the lottery draw for condominium houses, she has managed to save 400 Br monthly to benefit from the city's 80-20 subsidised housing scheme for the past 11 years.

"I am losing faith," Meseret lamented to Fortune, her voice echoing the despair of many Addis Abeba residents struggling with the city's housing crisis.

The relentless surge in housing costs has become a source of immense anxiety for many Addis Abebans. Tenants struggle to keep up with the ever-increasing rental fees. At the same time, homeowners grapple with the rising cost of construction materials, protracted access to finance, and the limited availability of land. These factors have created a formidable barrier for even middle-income earners to achieve the dream of homeownership.

In an attempt to address the situation, city officials implemented a policy prohibiting homeowners from increasing rental fees for the past year. However, this measure proved to be a mere band-aid on a gaping wound, failing to address the underlying causes of the housing crisis.

Efforts to alleviate the housing shortage began two decades ago when the government initiated a subsidised condominium project overseen by the Housing Development Bureau.

To date, 317,000 condominium houses out of the 321,089 have been transferred to homeowners by the City Housing Corporation, including the 25,733 individuals in the latest lottery draw. Parallel campaigns, including providing homes to public officials and children of farmers displaced by public projects, were conducted outside the lottery draw, accounting for the discrepancy.

The Corporation tasked to construct and transfer the houses to owners has a six billion Birr budget for the year. With the last registration taking place over a decade ago, there are close to 854,000 people currently waiting for homes although there is no compiled information on active savers.

Meanwhile, the City Administration has only paid 28 billion Br out of the 58 billion Br borrowed from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia for the construction. Senior Advisor Jemal Mohammed believes high subsidisation is the reason for the massive indebtedness with a price of a square metre hovering around 11,600 Br under the 40-60 scheme.

"It is very affordable," he said.

The high debt has not stopped the City Housing Development & Administration Bureau from requesting an additional five billion Birr loan that is waiting for approval.

But, officials seem dumbfounded over the financing issue which has been a significant hurdle to meeting the housing demand across the capital.

Jemal pointed towards efforts to enable the self-mobilisation of funds as an autonomous entity by establishing an enterprise. He indicates that while migration and high birth rates are a factor, a deep dive into the matter would point to several factors at play, with finances remaining at the forefront.

"A deep analysis is necessary to find the root cause," he said.

The progress seems slow.

A national housing strategy by the Ministry of Urban & Infrastructure to build 4.4 million units across the decade has not moved much. Although the plan was to build 190,000 homes in the past three years by the government, a mere 37,000 homes were completed.

Muluemebet Kebede, head of Housing Supply & Finance Ammendment at the Ministry, acknowledged the rise in demand for housing in the capital and regional states and revealed an ongoing push for top-down pressure to prioritise the issue.

"Fulfilling the demand through condominium projects is unlikely," she noted.

The Ministry plans to explore modalities through joint ventures, real estate developments, partnerships and cooperative unions, with the private sector handling most of the responsibility.

She told Fortune of plans to hire a consultant and explore alternative financing schemes such as mortgage loan possibilities.

Several attempts were made over the years to establish mortgage institutions.

The now-defunct Construction & Business Bank was a wholly government-owned public enterprise absorbed by the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. It was a successor of the Housing & Savings Bank, which was formed in 1975 through the merger of two financial institutions: Imperial Savings & Home Ownership Association and Savings & Mortgage Corporation of Ethiopia.

The latest and first private mortgage bank emerged two years ago.

Goh Betoch Bank, founded by Mulgeta Asmare, provides 70pc of the finances through a long-term loan of up to 30 years. It has ventured into the sector to address middle-class housing issues and had modest success by loaning 1.4 billion Br to 110 individuals until June 2023.

Mulugeta explains the two modalities of loan where the buyer provides the house as collateral or provides a loan based on construction permits.