At Jinja Homes and Bujagali Property agency we study and analyse public data from the Uganda Bureau of Statics to help our clients understand the Housing and House Characteristics of Ugandans.
One of such studies is from the thematic series based on the National Population and Housing census and The Uganda Population and Housing Census. These explain Household Characteristics, containing information on household utilities, housing conditions and household welfare.
The population and Housing census is the major source of demographic and social-economic statistics in Uganda. To make a more informed investment in Real Estate it is important to have some insight on population, housing, agriculture, micro and small enterprises as well as community information.
Housing is one of the basic human needs that have a profound impact on the health, welfare, social attitudes and economic productivity of an individual. It is also one of the best indications of a person’s standard of living and of his or her place in society.
According to a recent report, Rental housing is dominant in urban areas accounting for 58 percent of households. Only 30 percent are owner occupied while the rest are institutional quarters for specific institutions such as the Army, the Police, Teachers and Hospital Staff among others. Room type dwellings units account for 62 percent in the urban areas.
The populations census report highlights that Ugandans above the age of 50 are only 8 percent of the total population, while only 5 percent are above the age of 60. 56 percent of Ugandans is below the age of 18years. 84 percent of Ugandans live in rural areas while only 16 percent live in urban areas.
GOVERNMENT POLICY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON HOUSING
In Uganda just like in many other developing countries today, the provision of housing is a responsibility of individual households. As part of the overall economic liberalization policy, Government adopted a policy of divesting itself from direct supply of housing units. It assumed the role of an enabler to facilitate other stakeholders to play an active role in increasing the housing stock and improving the quality of housing. Government adopted this policy framework as a result of its increasing inability to construct houses for its employees let alone maintain the existing stock in the pool housing scheme.
Flats constituted a very small proportion of the housing units both in urban and rural areas. It should be noted that flats have several advantages as they optimize on the use of limited land, reduce the unit cost of service provision and enhance security. Nevertheless, they require substantial initial capital outlay which many individual households do not have.
Until recently, Uganda did not have a law that would facilitate sale and ownership of flats by individuals. The Condominium Properties Act was enacted in 2001 and since then it has become possible to sell and own flats. It is hoped that the private sector will accordingly respond and build blocks of apartments both for sale and rental.
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT UGANDA
LOCATION AND SIZE
Uganda is located in East Africa and lies across the equator, about 800 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean. It lies between 10 29’ South and 40 12’ North latitude, 290 34 East and 350 0’ East longitude. The country is landlocked, bordered by Kenya in the East; South Sudan in the North; Democratic Republic of Congo in the West; Tanzania in the South; and Rwanda in South West. It has an area of 241,038 square kilometres, of which the land area covers 197,323 square kilometres.
ADMINISTRATION
The country is divided into 134 districts as of February 2020. The districts are sub-divided into lower administrative units. These are counties, sub-counties, parishes and villages or Local Council 1 (LC 1). Overtime, the numbers of districts and lower level administrative units have continuously increased with the aim of making administration and delivery of services easier. This, however, has a very difficult since most of the districts do not have time series data and hence it is hard to do a trend analysis
In addition, Uganda has a Local Governments System at different levels. These are LC V (District); LC IV (County / Municipality); LC III (Sub – County); LC II (Parish); and LC I (Village). The role of the local governments is to implement and monitor government programmes at the respective levels.
GEOGRAPHY
The country enjoys equatorial climate with plenty of rain and sunshine moderated by the relatively high altitude. In most parts of the country, the mean annual temperatures range from 16 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, the Northern and Eastern regions sometimes experience relatively high temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius and the South Western region sometimes has temperatures below 16 degrees Celsius.
The Central, Western and Eastern regions have two rainy seasons, from March to May for the first rains, and the second rains from September to November. The Northern region receives one rainy season from April to October, and the period from November to March has minimal rain. Most of the country receives between 750mm and 2100mm annually