House in Zimbabwe
By Wallace Mawire : The Zimbabwe Property Developers Association (ZIPRODA) is concerned with the mushrooming of bogus property developers in Zimbabwe and says that it is advocating for a property developers bill to regulate the industry.
According to the association composed of organised property developers who want to see sanity in their industry, there is a proliferation of fly by night property developers who are giving a bad name to genuine property developers in the industry.
ZIPRODA Chairperson, Mr Kudzai Chirima says that the objectives of his association are to encourage and to ensure that property developers achieve the highest standards in performance of their duties be they servicing of virgin land,construction of units,pricing and delivery of the product in the shortest possible time.
“Once the above is achieved, consumer confidence will be restored by our clients, the land providers and the financiers,” Chirima says.
Membership to ZIPRODA is open to a person,company,association that can provide serviced stands,housing units from virgin land.Services provided include layout plans,surveying,designing plans for roads,sewer and water,the laying of pipes for sewer lines with the correct main holes and gradients including outflow connections to the main trunk.
Chirima says that if one can provide a serviced stand he or she qualifies to be a genuine developer.He added that bogus property developers have mushroomed everywhere in Zimbabwe to the detriment of genuine developers.He adds that this has resulted in unfinished projects,the public or clients losing their money to bogus developers,clients being overcharged,poor services being provided to clients and loss of confidence by clients in developers,loss of confidence by municipalities who supply land and lack of professionalism.
Mr Chirima says that the property developers bill is currently with the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities awaiting to undergo through parliament in-order to regulate the industry.
ZIPRODA Deputy Chairperson, Ms Nancy Saungweme says that her association is in a position to conduct an audit of its membership and keep a current membership roster which can readily be made available for inspection by prospective landowners.
Saungweme says that the association plans to act on issues of indiscipline in the property and housing development market.She added that ZIPRODA is advocating for public institutions to work with registered membership than just any developer.She says that public institutions only regret after dealing with unscrupulous developers.
At a recent meeting conducted by ZIPRODA, bogus property developers have been identified as people who take people’s money and not being able to deliver.People who sell one stand to many clients.Fly by night businessmen of no fixed abode,no traceable references,who provide wrong information about themselves,who cannot be located when wanted by clients, including those who illegally cancel agreements.Also businesspeople who engage in unfair play in their dealings are classified as bogus.
