UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Many people don’t act on their dream of building a house because they believe that the construction of a home is expensive and only for the rich. True, constructing a house with low earnings may be a challenge for many. However, it is achievable with financial discipline and hiring the right people to build for you.
Décor Design Contractors (DDC) outlines how it is possible to own a decent house with a salary as low as USh 800,000.
A salary of USh 800,000 is a head-start in most companies in Uganda, but it is as good as useless for the young corporates living and working close to Kampala. Renting a modest two-bedroomed house in the Kampala suburbs goes for USh 250,000 and above. Then there are expenses of transport, food, and must-have entertainment to consider; so little money remains.
These days, too often the youth who are fresh from university are forced to solicit bail-outs from their parents, or resort to borrowing to make ends meet. Some of the young adults think they cannot survive on USh 800,000 for 30 days. Therefore, even talking about building a house is too much ambition for them at this stage in their life.
Some will dream about it, but believe they will only be able to achieve it later in life, upon a promotion or getting a better-paying job. Six years down the road and approaching 30 years old, with a girlfriend, probably with a baby, and a salary of about USh 1.2 m, and still the money will not be enough to build a home.
Ten more years down the same road, but this time with two or three school-aged children, the now 40-year old has probably only bought a plot of land with gritted teeth.
However, the truth is people have built their homes on much lesser incomes. Building a house is not an impossible achievement. If you start immediately after your first salary, you can enjoy the benefits of owning a home by the age of 30. Let’s explore how.
The Prospect of Buying Land for Construction
With USh 7 m, you can buy a 50 X 100 ft. plot of land with a land title in a radius of 30 km from Kampala City Centre. Do not despair about buying land away from the city because it is expanding daily. For example, such plots in Gayaza, Mukono, and Sseguku were costing this very amount about 7-9 years ago.
Adjust your lifestyle; for instance, renting a one-roomed house instead of two rooms will be cheaper and help you save for your dream home.
According to Abdu-Wahab Nyanzi, an architect with JR Consultants, if you can save USh 200,000 per month as a minimum, you can build your own home slowly, and will eventually live comfortably without the hustle of paying rent.
Planning to Build a House and the Cost
Now that you have bought the land, let’s discuss the construction costs.
Firstly, to build a dream house, you must carefully plan the project from the beginning to the end. Otherwise, construction will run into unexpected expenses, and exceed the estimated budget. In a separate article, we discuss root causes of cost overruns how to avoid them.
Getting a complete building plan with approval from authorities will cost you about USh 800,000. With diligent savings, you can amass this amount for five or six months, and we are now almost two years down.
With such a salary, it is better to build a modest house of two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen, with the toilet and bathroom outside.
Here, you will need about 6,000 bricks. Depending on where you buy them, each brick can cost around USh 350. You can buy the bricks in five months and put them at your site. To avoid the high cost of bricks, you even make bricks at the site, and these will cost around USh 170 each.
In five months, you would have deposited enough money, say, with a trusted hardware shop, to purchase 40 bags of cement. You are ready to start your building in the following year.
To be continued in Part 2 of this series.
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
Cost Analysis: Building Your Dream House on a Small Income, Part 1
Cost Analysis: Building Your Dream House on a Small Income, Part 2