NSSF’s Lubowa houses up for sale

But the houses are too expensive for the average Ugandan

Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | Uganda’s pension fund has placed more than 370 housing units for sale at its Lubowa Housing Project on Entebbe Road in Wakiso District but they are expensive to the average local population.

NSSF Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba, said the Fund spent approximately US$ 73.3 million in setting up the housing units and employing about 4700 both directly and indirectly.

“We have invested close to $31million on construction materials that have been sourced from local industries and have created over 1,500 direct jobs and 3,200 indirect jobs through the construction of this project.

These numbers will increase as we implement the next eight phases” he said.

The project set to be completed in 10 phases in 10 years consisting of 2,740 housing units, will also encompass office space, schools, a hospital, leisure, and commercial areas as well as a central park and a plantation garden park to respond to the growing demand for quality housing facilities.

Byarugaba said the new housing units which fall in the first phase of the project will be sold on a rent-payment model where one pays a small percentage of the total cost of the unit and starts living in it as he/she pays rent, and on completion of the payment, owns it.

However, he acknowledges the fact that the houses which consist of bungalows and apartments are very expensive averaging between US$150,000 and US$800,000 per unit.

He adds that although the demand for housing is increasing, limited credit to build and the lack of a mortgage market push most people to slums where informal settlement doesn’t contribute to economic development.

Currently, the country has a housing deficit of about 2.1 million units, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, with the low and medium population being the section most in need of what they have termed fair standards accommodation.

Possible Solution

Peter Kimbowa, the chairman Board of Directors at NSSF said the government can establish the Uganda mortgage refinancing company as a credible, professional, and high-quality large-scale medium to longterm finance option for the population.

“As NSSF we are also going to scale up the housing units to what everyone can afford,” he said.

But the low-cost houses, according to NSSF, would be anywhere between Shs80million and Shs120million. And this means that the population would have to forego infrastructures like roads, water, electricity, and sewerage systems.

Last year, NSSF revealed that it had set aside Shs 770b for procurement for the real estate investment, most of it targeting lowcost units in Temangalo and Nsimbe estates.

President Museveni who was the chief guest at the commissioning hailed NSSF for growing from a small fund to one that now takes part in big investment projects in the country.

“What NRM is struggling with is bringing the whole society into a money economy. By 1969, the households in the money economy were only 4% and 96% were in subsistence production. When we came in, we talked about it but things not moving and by 2013 68% were still in non-monetary GDP. It has gone down to 39%,” he said.

“We now want to win over the remaining 39% and this is the strategic success we need.
We are now moving well and once we have mobilized all the nine million homesteads to be involved in commercial production, everything will be well.”

“I am very happy (with this project). This is a good initiative and I want to congratulate NSSF for this investment.”

The Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija applauded NSSF for having grown over the years into one of the exemplary public institutions in the country.

The Fund’s other real estate investments include; the Mbuya Housing Project, Jinja Commercial Complex, Mbarara Commercial Complex, Workers House, Social Security House, and Pension Towers.

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