Kigali: Affordable houses, the priority for city residents

The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) showed last week Kigali City policymakers and executive secretaries of some sectors, that 53% of Kigali residents rent houses. The demographic growth of city is also increasing by 5.7% because of rural exodus, where 597 thousand people have been moving to Kigali these last years.

People move to Kigali searching for jobs and a big number of them coming from different parts of the country to join numerous universities and institutes found in the capital city. All of these people and other unmentioned categories need houses for rent.

Some people who have been renting houses in this city for a couple of years say they probably will never own their houses, as they continue having difficulties surviving due to the expensive rent fees.

Dieudone Niyotwagira, who has spent the last twelve years renting houses in different quarters of the city. He earns 100.000 Rwandan francs a month. Sometimes he earns less than that.

He says that houses are getting more expensive. “Half of the money I earn a month goes to the rent” he said. “I sometimes have problems with the landlord for not meeting the rent’s due.”

Houses are said to have tripled the price from the last fifteen years. One living in Gitega, one of the city suburb, says that a small house worth 10.000 in the 1995s Rwandan francs is now worth 40.000.

It is quite similar to prices of a single man’s house that varies between 30 and 50 thousand Rwandan francs, while a house accommodating a family varies between 70 and 120 Rwandan francs.

Some of Kigali residents ask the government to build some affordable houses for middle income people, saying that houses built by RSSB (Rwanda Social Security Board) in Gacuriro are for the rich, as some are worth 70 million Rwandan francs.

RSSB is now in charge of providing people with these houses. Moses Kazoora, director of Public Relations, Communications and education in RRSB, says that this September they have to sign an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) between them, the ministry of infrastructure and the City of Kigali.

“The city of Kigali alongside the ministry of infrastructure will construct roads, and bring water and electricity to these quarters” He said. “By the end of this year we are going to start building 500 houses in Batsinda, where we bought a piece of land.”

The current situation in the remaining two districts of the city, Nyarugenge and Kicukiro, is that RSSB is waiting for a company that will help them expropriate people living there, then start building another round of 300 houses.

Even though people want the government to built affordable houses for rent, these ones will be for sale. RSSB hasn’t yet announced the price of these houses.

Last year the Institute of Real Property Valuers in Rwanda said that these houses can cost approximately between 20 and 25 million Rwanda francs.

Expensive though to the majority of Kigali residents, concern that these houses can be given to someone having at least 30% of the total price and pay the remaining money in categories, Moses says that people will be informed later about that later.

This issue was raised in the 10^th readership retreat, in 2012 and repeated in the 11^th one that took place in Gabiro Infantry training center, this March 2014.

It is said that in order to reduce the price of these houses, the ministry of defense can be given this opportunity. “MINADEF (The ministry of defense) has the arrangement engineering department. It can be good for the government not to look for foreign companies that usually search for high profit.” Kazoora confirms.

Alain Joseph MBARUSHIMANA
UM– USEKE.RW