Social housing in Cameroon: state of the affairs
Résumé
In this paper, we observe that in 2020, the cumulative deficit in social housing in Cameroon amounted to about 2,000,000 dwellings. Moreover, for more than 70 years, the production and management of social housing within the territory has been performed by a single social landlord and donor; a state-owned corporation. This state of play shows that in 2021, in the land market, the acquisition costs a square meter of undeveloped land varied between 400,000CFA francs (640 US$) and 10,000CFA francs (US$16 US$), for plots of land benefiting totally or partially from a good level of urban infrastructure and services. Furthermore, potential clients able to afford the rent of social housing are Cameroonians whose monthly salary levels in the county's formal economy ranges from 25,068CFA francs (40 US$) to 674,708CFA franc (1,080 US$). With regard to the social housing rental market, the minimum rental costs for housing proposed by the sole Cameroonian social landlord reveal that the lowest monthly rent is 13,100 CFA francs (21 US$) for a T1 dwelling and 85,860 CFA francs (137 US$) for a T6 dwelling. Comparing the monthly rental costs of housing offered by the social landlord with the level of salary available to employees in the formal economy, shows that only a portion of employees in category 1 and 2 of the private sub-sectors, outside banking and financial institutions, cannot be housed on the ground of having very low salary levels.