Housing deficit to be eradicated by 2018 in Algeria

The deficit in housing will be eradicated and squatter settlements will "definitely" be eliminated by 2018 thanks to the completion of the new Five Year Plan (2015-2019), said Tuesday in Algiers Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.
"The deficit in housing will be eradicated by 2018 (...). Any Algerian who is in need of housing will benefit from a housing unit," Sellal affirmed during a day study on the industrialization of construction in Algeria.
According to Sellal, the new public housing program will also allow "the definitive eradication of precarious housing in Algeria" in four years.
The government's action plan for the implementation of the program of President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, provides for the construction of 1.6 million new housing units all types over the next five years.
"The government has taken all necessary measures to achieve these objectives for which all resources, particularly financial ones, have been mobilized," Sellal stated.
In this regard, he stressed the need for accelerating the pace of implementation to enable the delivery, in a timely manner, of all the housing programs.
However, warned the Premier, this acceleration must not be at the expense of the quality of housing.
 In this sense, he said a new qualitative step in the design and construction of housing units is being implemented by the authorities.
Companies in charge of implementing new projects will be subject to requirements defined by the book of specifications, requiring them to comply with building standards "in line with the parameters of quality, speed, sustainability, respect for the environment and the preservation of our Arab-Muslim values in terms of design,” he further stressed.