By The EastAfrican

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Tanzania has launched its first real estate census to collect property statistics to help it improve its housing policy.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the exercise will last four days and comes on the back of the population census, which kicked off last week, but has been extended until September 4.

Read: Samia counted as Tanzania kicks off census

The data to be collected during the housing census includes the number of buildings, ownership, cost and availability of basic infrastructure.

According to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, the data will aid official updates of land surveys and demarcation boundaries for residential housing, commercial and industrial investments, and agricultural and livestock-keeping activities, including pastoral grazing land.

It will allow for proper identification of people living in informal settlements, particularly in urban areas, or on public land designated for other social services, the ministry said. Land use planning, including plot allocations to local and foreign investors, will also be made easier to control incessant disputes and conflicts over ownership rights, it added.

Data from the 2012 census showed that of the 9.3 million available houses, 6.3 million homes were roofed by corrugated iron sheets, and three million had thatched roofing.

By Monday, the census commissar Anne Makinda said at least 93 percent of households had been enumerated.

The 2022 Population and Housing Census is the first to be done digitally and costs Tsh328 billion ($141 million).

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President Samia Suluhu Hassan said preliminary results of the census would be announced in October.