It is never too late to begin investing and planning for the future, but the sooner the better. 

This is true in real estate because a house, an apartment or whatever another type of property on the market can pay off if you invest wisely in your 20s or 30s. 

Owning a house rather than renting is often a good way to save money and set yourself up with a valuable asset in the future. 

However, renting it out can be even better as it is a guaranteed source of income that can pay off your mortgage while you earn some extra money. 

Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 48.1% of the total population being between 15 and 64 years old. 

This surge in a young population explosion, especially in urban areas has put a strain on social services and created a housing crisis. With this state of affairs, can young people position themselves to invest in real estate and afford decent housing?

Morris Abigaba, 32, who works with Total Uganda says investing in real estate as a young person is a personal initiative. 

“I started working during my Senior Six vacation and I saved money to buy a plot of land in my second year at campus. The land was later rented out and I generated some good money out of it. By 2019, I had saved sh25m out of rent and I immediately started constructing my home. 

I am now a landlord, with the help of a bank loan, which helped me secure some loans that were later diverted to my property. The youth must embrace personal development investment while they are still young, without many family responsibilities and obligations so that they can retire early and enjoy old age,” Abigaba says. 

He adds that though some young people come from good and rich backgrounds, they must work hard to be like their parents in the future.

This can be fulfilled by using their parents’ resources and forging their own lives away from their families because, at the end of the day, they need to be independent. 

Phillip Muhoja from Spectrum Real Estate Solutions and Properties says young people must be mentored in business and investment practices at a young age before they can realise the importance of owning homes early in life. 

“Many rich people’s children have been trained to look for business investment partners as opposed to acquiring the latest smartphone,” he says.

That said, according to Muhoja, the question of providing affordable housing in Uganda remains an intricate one. 

“In 1991, the Government instituted the ‘enabling approach’, in which it shoulders the responsibility of creating an environment in which households, companies and community groups can operate effectively, and efficiently and thus be in a position to provide decent, affordable shelter for all Ugandans. Unfortunately, the various stakeholders are not well coordinated, with pro-poor housing and land provision policies are ineffective,” he says. 

Muhoja adds that even though the Government has this noble duty to its low-income citizens, it looks to have left the housing problem of the urban poor in the hands of the private sector, which in most cases provides expensive houses because of profit maximisation motives, high taxation on building materials, high mortgage rates and high costs of infrastructure and other services.