A lot of Zimbabweans want their own home, so the demand for new housing is high and there are opportunities for mass development schemes that can satisfy this demand.

But, as has also been discovered, few families renting accommodation have been able to save deposits even when mortgages are available and not all families wanting to buy or build a house have the income that can support such an endeavour.

But that should not mean everyone can sit back. A lot can be done by the Government, city councils and private developers, with a church, PHD Ministries, now eager to enter the field.

Those wanting to enter the housing field have to do their sums first. There are a number of costs that cannot be avoided. Land has to be found, although there are banks of public land that can be used.

Then the basic infrastructure has to be put in; the water supply to each stand, the sewerage connection, the roads and the electricity grid. The cost of all of this is what turns cheap farmland into far more expensive housing stands.

Some housing schemes offer just plots and allow buyers to build what they want. This is fine for those who already own a house or flat and are upgrading or those who have money beyond their immediate living expenses. But the majority are going to have to go the “rent-to-buy” route, moving onto their new stand and developing it themselves using the money they no longer pay a landlord.

Previous experience with this group makes the provision of at least core houses, a minimum starter home, imperative on health grounds. The time needed to build a decent house can be years, and the family needs to be able to live in adequate shelter during this time.

Developers also need to look at building materials and design to see how respectable housing can be built at minimum cost.

But given that, it is possible to organise mass building and that in turn can stimulate an economy. Anyone seeking examples could look no further than Germany and Japan in 1945 with the majority of their housing bombed into rubble and ash. Yet within a decade most Germans and Japanese were properly housed.

In more modern times we have seen the huge demographic switch in China from a predominantly rural society to one where the majority now live in cities, some built from scratch in a few years.

And all that cement making, steelmaking, brick making and actual building provided a lot of jobs, contributing to the rapid economic growth of all three examples during their building booms.

In Zimbabwe there was some industrialised home building at the very end of the colonial era, especially in Bulawayo where the public housing stock was doubled in five years to 50 000.

That created its own problems, especially with minimum standards used, but shows what is possible and how we can do much better now, especially in ensuring that homes can be upgraded later.

Over the decades a lot of good ideas have been generated. Now everyone concerned needs to be ready to push forward on a number of fronts to ensure that we can build enough houses as quickly as possible, and houses that can be upgraded and modified over the years. All this will boost our economy and provide thousands of jobs, a serious by-product.