Public Housing for Every Gambian
Building a Home Every Gambian is proud of
Housing is where every other policy lands. A child cannot study well in an overcrowded, poorly ventilated home. A mother cannot maintain her family's health without clean water and functioning sanitation. A worker cannot be productive without the security that a stable home provides. The housing situation in The Gambia today is a crisis measured not in dramatic headlines but in the daily lived experience of millions of families. In the Greater Banjul Area, rapid population growth has far outpaced the supply of decent, affordable housing. In rural and interior regions, housing stock is old, structurally inadequate, and lacking the basic infrastructure of running water, reliable power, and proper sanitation. Many Gambians occupy land and homes without formal title or secure tenure, meaning families can be displaced and investment in improving a home is always made under the shadow of uncertainty. A housing deficit is both a symptom and a cause of poverty, and no serious national development programme can ignore it.
Imagine a Gambia where every family has a secure, dignified home. Where housing estates across all seven regions provide well-built, properly serviced homes to Gambians who could never afford them on the open market. Where those estates have schools, clinics, markets, and green spaces woven into them from the outset, not added later as afterthoughts. Where widows, single mothers, the elderly, the disabled, and young families forming for the first time are prioritised, not overlooked. Where tenure is secure, rent is fair, and a path to ownership exists for those who stay and commit to their community. Inspired by the success of Singapore's public housing model, the National Builders Party will build homes that restore dignity, strengthen families, and give every Gambian a foundation to build their life on.
The NBP will enact a National Housing Act and establish the National Public Housing Authority as the institution responsible for planning, building, allocating, and maintaining public housing across the entire country.
The National Housing Act will make the right to adequate housing a legally recognised entitlement for qualifying Gambian households, not a discretionary favour subject to political circumstance. It will define minimum habitability standards for all residential dwellings, establish the National Housing Register as the official record of all public housing units and their condition, and enshrine tenure security so that no resident can be arbitrarily evicted. The NPHA, led by a Director General appointed on merit, will be the independent statutory body that implements every element of the housing programme, with a Board that includes tenant representatives, housing professionals, regional government, and financial experts. Every allocation decision will be published, every allocation process will be independent, and any official found to have manipulated the system will face immediate dismissal and criminal prosecution.
The NBP will conduct a comprehensive nationwide housing survey in the first year of government to establish exactly where the deficit is greatest and direct investment accordingly.
No housing programme can be effective without knowing the scale, location, and character of the problem it is addressing. The National Housing Needs Assessment will establish the number of Gambians living in structurally unsafe, severely overcrowded, or inadequate conditions in every district and region. It will quantify how many new units are needed, where, and of what type. The findings will be published in full and will form the binding basis for the NPHA's construction programme, the regional allocation of units, and the phased delivery timeline. Citizens will be able to track project progress through regular government updates on the NPHA Housing Progress Dashboard.
The NBP will establish public housing estates in every administrative region, beginning with the most underserved areas and using the housing programme deliberately to reduce migration pressure from the interior toward the coast.
The Greater Banjul Area and Western Region will receive the largest absolute allocations given the severity of current overcrowding. The Central River Region, North Bank Region, and Upper River Region will receive allocations proportionally higher than their population share, making interior regions more attractive places to live. Every estate will be developed in or adjacent to existing settlements with community life, transport connections, and economic activity, avoiding the isolated dormitory estates that have failed elsewhere in the world. Each estate will include clean water, paved roads, reliable electricity, drainage, waste management, schools, clinics, community centers, and green spaces, built into the estate from the start, not added later.
The NBP will design every public housing estate as a genuinely mixed-income community, because concentrated poverty compounds disadvantage rather than relieving it.
A significant share of units in every estate will be allocated to low-income households at rent set at a reasonable proportion of their verified monthly income, ensuring housing never consumes more than families can bear. A further share will be offered at subsidised market rates to lower-middle income households who cannot afford open market housing. The remaining units will be offered at full market rent, generating the revenue that cross-subsidises the affordable units and creates the economic diversity that makes estates genuinely livable. Market-rate tenants will have identical housing and estate conditions to subsidised tenants. No estate will be designed, branded, or managed in a way that creates visible class distinctions between neighbours. Everyone who lives there belongs there equally.
The NBP will ensure that the families who need housing most get it first, with a transparent, digitally administered allocation system that cannot be manipulated by political connections or personal relationships.
Priority in the allocation system will go first to households in structurally unsafe or condemned conditions, then to elderly Gambians living alone without family support, widows and widowers with dependent children, single parents raising children without a second income, persons with disabilities whose current housing does not meet their needs, and young Gambian households under 35 forming for the first time. Applications will be submitted through the NPHA digital portal, accessible online and at all regional offices for those without internet access. Every application will be assessed within 30 days. The National Housing Register will be publicly accessible so applicants can see their position and the estimated wait time. All decisions can be appealed to an independent Housing Appeals Panel.
The NBP will operate public housing on a long-term leasehold basis with genuine security of tenure, and provide a Home Ownership Pathway for long-term residents who wish to eventually purchase their home.
A leasehold is not a barrier to feeling at home. A family that has lived in a well-maintained home for twenty years under a secure leasehold has a home. Initial leases will be offered for three-year terms, renewable automatically on satisfactory tenancy review. Long-term tenants of ten or more years will receive Enhanced Security of Tenure protection against displacement. Rent will be set at a reasonable proportion of verified monthly household income for low-income tenants and reviewed annually with any increase capped at the official Consumer Price Index rate. After 15 years of continuous tenancy in good standing, residents may apply to purchase the leasehold at a discounted price calculated on their accumulated rent payments, providing a genuine route to asset ownership for families who commit to their community long-term.
The NBP will build public housing using modular, locally sourced construction methods that create tens of thousands of jobs for Gambian workers and build the certified national construction workforce that every other part of the development programme depends on.
Local contractors, artisans, masons, carpenters, plumbers, and electricians will be prioritised on every construction contract, growing the Gambian workforce and keeping skills and income within the country. Modular and standardised construction approaches will be used to achieve the scale and pace of delivery the programme requires without sacrificing quality. Locally produced cement, sand, and aggregate will be used wherever available, supporting the domestic construction materials industry. Partnerships with vocational training institutes will prepare local builders and technicians for employment on the programme. International housing advisors will bring in best practice while Gambian workers, firms, and communities remain at the centre of every phase of delivery.
The National Builders Party will build the long-term maintenance and community governance structures into every estate from day one, because a well-built home allowed to deteriorate is still a failure.
A professionally trained Estate Manager will be resident in every housing estate, responsible for maintenance coordination, tenancy management, and community relations. Resident Associations, democratically elected with one representative per 50 households, will be the formal channel for tenants to raise concerns, propose improvements, and engage with local government. A Community Development Budget administered jointly by the Estate Manager and the Resident Association will fund communal improvements and estate beautification. A ring-fenced Maintenance Reserve calculated against the replacement cost of all housing units will be accumulated annually, protected from year-to-year fiscal pressures. Senior Living clusters will be staffed with a part-time social worker and a community health worker who visit regularly and connect elderly residents with the services they need.
For Families Who Need a Home
A transparent application process, assessed on need rather than connections. A published waitlist you can track. A written decision within 30 days. A right of appeal. And when your turn comes, a properly built home in a community with schools, a clinic, clean water, and power included. Rent set at a proportion of what you actually earn. Security of tenure that cannot be taken away arbitrarily. And after fifteen years, the possibility of owning it. That is what the NBP is building.
For Young Gambians
Young households forming for the first time are a named priority group in the NPHA allocation system. If you are under 35 and starting a family, the housing programme sees you and is designed to support you. The construction programme also sees you. Skills training partnerships built into the programme will create direct pathways from vocational training into employment on one of the largest construction programmes this country has ever undertaken, with local workers and local firms given priority at every stage.
For Every Family
When families in interior regions have decent, modern homes with proper infrastructure, migration pressure toward the coast decreases. When communities are stable and secure, children do better in school, adults are more productive at work, and crime rates fall. Housing is not welfare. It is the foundation on which every other investment this government makes becomes more effective. The National Builders Party is building that foundation in every region, for every family that needs it.
In The Gambia the National Builders Party builds, no family lives in a structurally unsafe home because they have nowhere else to go. No widow is displaced because there is no system to protect her. No elderly Gambian spends their final years in conditions that undermine their dignity. No young family forms without a realistic pathway to a secure home of their own. Every public housing estate is built to a defined minimum standard, maintained to that standard, and governed by a Resident Association with a real voice and a real budget. Every allocation is made on need, published transparently, and subject to independent appeal. Every estate is built by Gambian hands wherever possible. Every home has clean water, reliable power, and proper sanitation. The estates around them have schools, clinics, and green spaces. Housing is not a favour the government gives to those it favours. It is a foundation it builds for every Gambian who needs it. The National Builders Party will build that foundation, estate by estate, region by region, family by family.
A home is not a luxury. It is the foundation beneath every other aspiration a family has. The National Builders Party will build that foundation for every Gambian who needs it, in every region, with their dignity intact and their future secured.
Think Big. Build Big.
Read the plan. Join the movement.
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