The pros and cons of cluster house development

Development isn't all about shopping centers.

Cluster housing has worked in other parts of the country, and it's been written into municipal by-laws since the turn of the millenium. What has been missing were developers willing to make the up-front investment to create cluster housing developments and prove to the local population that living on a working farm is preferable to plowing one under to pour a new home's foundation.

"There is definitely a risk factor for the property owner or developer," says Engineer Praymore Mhlanga, the Gweru City Council Acting Director of Engineering Services. "This is a new-product type in a market without a track record in this area. But it has very real benefits for the community in terms of land use and the environment."

Mhlanga and his team had to tour Bulawayo, Harare, and other places in order to really understand what the cluster house concept was all about.

"The problem," says a property guru who requested anonymity, "is that we haven't yet seen a local example of cluster housing, so no one realizes that it is a sustainable solution.
Like living on a golf course of a lake, the cluster housing idea would allow people - young families, retired seniors, working peope - to live "on a farm or plot."

It does take a large investment to create this kind of development. When landowners can easily sell 5-acre parcels for ready cash, with no requirement to install utilities or other infrastructure before the sale, what is the incentive to create cluster housing?

The incentive, says the property guru, has to be a concern about the future of the landscape coupled with a belief that this kind of neighborhood is desirable. He'd love to live on a plot, and he doesn't think he's alone in that desire. And financially, he is convinced after reading about similar clusters throughout the country, that although it is a more complex and costly process, cluster housing does ultimately get the landowner's equity back.

"It requires money and vision," He admits.

Another developer works with clients daily who want their dream home on a 5-acre lot, not realizing the amount of maintenance required to keep five acres looking good, or the farmland that might have been saved had they and their neighbors required less land per home.

"I just know that if people could see this kind of neighborhood, they'd realize how much sense it makes," in terms of consistency of design and neighborhood feel, she said, something that is lacking in a patchwork of 5-acre parcels.

Says Simon Dube, a property consultant:"People have a false sense of security on their 5-acre parcels, and they're surprised if their neighbor starts, for example, to ride around the perimeter of his property on a dirt bike. There are no restrictions on what they can do, and we have no capacity to control other people's choices. Planned cluster developments have covenants that guarantee a certain type of neighborhood, with surrounding open space."

Writes Don Merriweather on city-data.com: "To start, there is no legal definition for what a cluster home precisely is. The one thing everyone agrees on is that it is a single family "detached." (I want to emphasize the work detached.) In almost all cases, the cluster home is separated from the home or homes immediately to the left or right or both by a space of 10' or less . . . hence, the idea that they are clustered. Some realtors seem to think that two homes connected by a common storage room wall qualify to be classified as cluster homes, but that is not the case.

"The definition of a townhome is defined as an "attached, privately owned single-family dwelling unit which is a part of and adjacent to other similarly owned single-family dwelling units that are connected to but separated from one another by a COMMON PARTY WALL having no doors, windows, or other provisions for human passage or visibility." (Emphasis added) I hope this will clarify what a cluster home is and is not.

Adds Merriweather: "As for negatives about cluster homes, that really is up to the purchaser (given that the location is good). Some folks like to live closer to others; some don't. Some folks like less yard work; some love jumping on a riding lawn mower once a week. It goes on . . . . Every style of home has its pool of interested buyers, and if you don't want to hear your neighbors screaming at each other about each others faults, then focus on homes on larger lots.

Considering that Mashmo Eastdel Cluster houses are within a 500 square metre enclosure, with the house itself occupying 150 square metres, the word close automatically loses its meaning here.