In some of the country’s towns and cities. The price ascent has been even more dramatic with Windhoek amongst others seeing prices double in less than four years. The reasons for these notable increases are manifold, both due to supply and demand dynamics in the local economy. On the demand side, growth in the local economy, rural-urban migration, increased employment and a rapidly growing middle-class have driven strong, but ultimately foreseeable, increases in demand for formal housing, particularly in urban centres.

As well as increasing house prices, limited supply of new property in urban centres, has resulted in a sizable shortfall of formal housing, which meansthat many families that would otherwise be willing and able to afford formal housing are unable to do so and thus end up in informal housing. According to Vision 2030, adopted in 2004, the extent of the shortfall was estimated to be approximately 80,000 houses. Updated estimates by local experts put the current shortfall in the region of 100,000 houses, which is broadly in line with the number of families living in informal housing. High house prices not only bear an enormous brunt on the income of households, but it also precipitates an in-or-out situation whereby the majority of the population becomes defined as either owners or renters, with little ability to transcend the boundary from renter to owner. In addition, this in-or-out scenario has a pervasive long-term impact in terms inequality, as those that own property experience the capital gains of revaluation as well as increased income from these investment assets, not to mention bank credibility. Thus, those that own property can buy more. Those that do not, are effectively enslaved to pay rent, boosting the income of the already more prosperous.