Enhancing the provision of affordable housing by the National Housing Corporation in Tanzania

The possibility of improving National Housing Corporation (NHC)’s performance in provision of adequate and affordance housing development process at pre-investment stage. This dissertation aims at finding ways of enhancing the provision of adequate and affordable housing to all by the National Housing Corporation to improve its ability to operate commercially and competitively in the housing market. The main question in the study was whether or not NHC ensures adequacy and affordability to the targeted group. Qualitative methods used in this research include face-to-face interviews, participant observation, and analysis of projects’ documents and review of early studies. Quantitative material was used to support the qualitative data. Current theories and practices of the study area show the need for housing developer to consider the issue of housing affordability before deciding to invest on a given project. Lack of adequate and valuable information on the targeted group regarding their ability to pay, makes the NHC to continuously play a marginal role in provision of affordable housing to all income groups. The study concludes that there is a need for a paradigm shift to enhance the performance of the NHC so as to impact on affordable housing provision in Tanzania. The study further recommends activities such as housing affordability analysis, financial feasibility analysis, market analysis and site selection analysis, to be done satisfactorily before defining a target group and affordable housing for any housing project.