Museveni asks housing industry to cut costs

October 20, 2017 in Investment, Real Estate & Property by Editor

October 20—President Yoweri Museveni has asked the housing industry and relevant authorities to tame the spread of unplanned human settlements and develop a better housing environment by working at reducing costs.

“The cost of acquiring a home in our urban centres should be reduced to enable our people to affordably own homes.” He said the high cost of acquiring homes has forced many urban dwellers to resort to slums or remain tenants.

Museveni’s speech was read by the Prime Minister, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda during the African Union for Housing Finance 33rd Annual Conference which was held in Kampala this week.

He said urban development has been steadily progressing for the last over 20 years at 5% higher than the population increase rate and close to the Gross Domestic Product growth.

“We have registered 5% average urbanization rate since 1991 compared to the annual population growth rate of 3%. The GDP has also been growing at average 6.6% for the above mentioned period,” he said.

He said Kampala city with the current population of about two million is expected to be home of 10 million people in the next 10 years considering the 6 percent population growth rate.

The President said there is also a shortage of professionals in the in the housing sector and solutions should be quickly devised for quality products to be realized. “Stakeholders in this conference should address shortage of professionals in the sector. Trained and highly specialized architects, engineers and surveyors, are vital for building quality homes.”

The conference under the theme ‘Engaging the Housing Value Chain for Growth’ was co-hosted by the Housing Finance Bank Uganda and African Union for Housing Finance.