AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN KIGALI: NEEDED BUT ELUSIVE

UNCLAS KIGALI 001110 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR AF/C DEPARTMENT PASS USTDA: EEBONG DEPARTMENT PASS USTR: WJACKSON DEPARTMENT PASS COMMERCE: RTELCHIN DEPARTMENT PASS OPIC: BCAMERON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN ECON PGOV EINV ENRG ETRD EPET BTIO RW SUBJECT: AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN KIGALI: NEEDED BUT ELUSIVE ¶1. Summary. The housing industry in Rwanda is fragmented and in need of assistance. Individuals are currently allocated plots and build according to their convenience, taste and capacity, irrespective of the area. The results are environmentally, aesthetically, and logistically problematic for the country. Both the real estate and appraisal professions in Rwanda are at early stages of development. The legal and regulatory framework necessary to spur the development of a market is developing, but it is still largely incomplete. Mortgage loans are not widely available and carry high interest rates, although commercial banks are beginning to look favorably at the expansion of residential lending. The city of Kigali has created a master plan to address unplanned development and to exercise more control over inevitable expansion. The city is attempting to spur investment in planned housing, but it is far from creating a replicable model for its various neighborhoods. End Summary. ¶2. Rwanda is fashioning a legal and regulatory framework for a functioning real estate market. An Organic Land Law was adopted in 2004, but it is very broad and requires a number of implementing laws, regulations, and decrees for it to function properly. USAID and the British Department of International Development (DFID) have been providing assistance to the Ministry of Land on the legal framework. DFID focuses its assistance on pilot efforts to regularize, register, and title land in several rural districts. USAID consultants have assisted with the drafting of an Expropriation Law, a revised version of which has just been passed by the Rwandan Parliament and is awaiting formal promulgation. The USAID consultants are also assisting in the drafting of a Valuation Law, a Surveying Law, a National Land Use Planning Law, and on regulations defining leasing procedures, ownership, and property registration. ¶3. The brokerage community in Rwanda is tiny and poorly organized. There are between four and six legitimate real estate companies in Rwanda with professional staff that mainly show properties and perform minimal sales assistance. The largest company has seven permanent employees; some have �0A;as few as two. There are, however, a large number of independent individuals who act as "brokers" or "agents" in the informal sector. ¶4. There are a number of housing developers building new housing "estates" for middle and higher income families. There is a considerable amount of construction of individual homes for upper income families, including returnees from the Rwandan Diaspora, either for their own residences or to rent to the growing number of expatriates in the country. According to Rwandan Housing Bank (RHB) Marketing and Sales Manager Charles Haba, RHB has almost 900 units in the planning stages. However, the secondary sales market is still extremely thin. ¶5. The mortgage industry in Rwanda is quite undeveloped and unsophisticated with RHB being the only institution specialised in mortgage finance. RHB offers Housing Savings Plans and Housing Savings Accounts, and makes 15-year mortgage loans at 14 percent interest with a 30 percent down payment, and 20-year loans at 7 percent interest to civil servants. RHB currently writes about five loans a week or 250 a year. Managing Director of Banque Commerciale de Rwanda (BCR) David Kuwana reports that his bank, the largest and most active in Rwanda, has between 15 percent and 20 percent of its portfolio in mortgage-type loans (not official mortgages, per se, but loans which are used to finance housing construction) and generally charges 14 percent-16 percent for five-year loans. Because of the bank's perceived increased demand for actual mortgages, Kuwana claimed that BCR will begin offering mortgage products next year once a capital market is established in which to raise long-term funds for the new products (Note: The establishment of capital markets is a priority project for the Rwandan Central Bank with assistance from the U.S. Department of Treasury, the IMF, and the World Bank. However, the project is in the early stages with an unclear timeline. End Note). ¶6. Mayor of Kigali Dr. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira reported that more than 70% of the construction in Kigali is unplanned settlement. To address this, Kigali City recently developed a master plan to replace traditional mud homes, often referred to as "slums," with more aesthetically pleasing construction. This involves planned housing development, provision of utilities, and subsidized removal of substandard housing. ¶7. Kacyira explained that Kigali City partnered with RHB and Caisse Sociale (Social Security Fund) for the first implementation of the GOR's master plan -- Batsinda Housing Project. Batsinda Housing Manager Ephraim Rusurabeza reported that 30 homes are fully constructed and plans for a completion of the 250-unit community by the end of 2007. According to Rusurabeza, people currently residing in slum areas of Kigali will be compensated for their mud homes, then strongly encouraged to move into Batsinda, where each resident will own their home. The city's compensation funds will be put towards the purchase price for each new home, and the balance must be financed with the RHB, explained Rusurabeza. ¶8. The Batsinda Housing Project has hundreds of workers on site every day, largely from the Rwadan Defense Force corps of engineers. Rusurabeza explained that having electricity is the individual occupant's decision rather than a project-wide goal. Every house comes equipped with large black water tanks that collect rain water and biogas sewage systems to power cooking stoves. ¶9. Kacyira reported that 750 slum homes will be expropriated by the city, but only 250 families will be moved to Batsinda. Currently, there is no relocation plan for the remaining 500 families. Each of the 250 families at Batsinda must maintain a monthly mortgage payment, a concept entirely foreign to many Rwandans. The project manager had no plan for residents who would be unable to maintain their mortgages, but did explain that the city is working on developing income-generating cooperatives to provide Batsinda residents with livelihoods and the means to sustain their mortgages. ¶10. As the city is filled with unplanned mud homes, Kacyira hopes that the Batsinda Housing Project will serve as a model for private developers to follow. Haba reported that many foreign investors have visited and expressed interest in the housing market, but only three have actually made firm investments - a German company building 29 middle-income units, a Belgian company building 230 high-income units and another 500 middle-income units, and an American firm building 30 middle-income units. ¶11. COMMENT: Kigali City should be commended for jumpstarting the local housing market and encouraging large-scale developers to invest in the housing sector. The Batsinda Housing Project is a proactive effort at addressing Kigali's unregulated development, tearing down slum housing, and creating planned communities. Laws regarding expropriation and valuation remain unclear however, potentially leaving the city open to legal action by residents who are either unwilling to move or who contest their compensation. Providing the necessary infrastructure and incentives for private investment are key tasks the resource-strained Government of Rwanda must tackle in replacing the ubiquitous mud huts around the city. Completion of the legal and regulatory framework should act as a stimulus to the development of a functioning real estate market, both new construction and a secondary market for the buying and selling of existing homes. End Comment. ARIETTI