According to the National Housing and Construction Company (NHCC), Uganda’s housing deficit that currently stands at 2m units continues to grow by 300,000 units per year. The company’s managing director, Mr Parity Twinomujuni, said demand for housing keeps increasing. This is due to the growing population and rural-urban migration of which the real estate players can hardly meet.
He said that theirs is but a small scratch on the surface of housing shortage. He further added that with the increase in population, it will be hard to completely solve the problem. According to him, the problem is likely to persist in the next 50 year. He further added that even a triple in production might not make much of a difference.
Housing solutions
According to NHCC, the housing requirement in Kampala will be at 750,791 units. Other towns will require 1,092,318 units, rural areas 8,482,889 units. This makes a total of 10,325,990 units nationally in the next three years. Housing experts say there is need for reasonably priced housing solutions as house prices continue rising between 10 and 15% per year. This figure is unequal to household income.
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Mr Twinomujuni says the price cuts on various units in the country are to mainly increase the uptake of housing products. Mr Mathias Katamba, the managing director Housing Finance Bank, said the bank will provide financing following customer concerns on how financial institutions can complement affordability through mortgage financing.
In the recent past, financial institutions have strengthened efforts towards increasing uptake of affordable homes. As a result, institutions such as Centenary Bank and Housing Finance Bank introduced micro housing finance loans and long-term mortgage plans respectively.
