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.
You can also visit us on Mashmo Land Investment Trust, First Floor, Motala Building, 74 Main Street, GWERU, ZIMBABWE.
