In spirit of facilitating Rwandan Diaspora to invest in their motherland through buying plots and houses, the Diaspora General Directorate organized a stakeholders meeting and the following facilities were agreed on.

How to Get a Housing Plot

According to the new land policy, the land no longer belongs to the Government but it belongs to the citizen. This gives the citizen the right to her/his land during expropriation of land in case the Government wants the land and again this means that, there is no land for free to every Rwandan, the Diaspora inclusive.

Therefore, if Rwandans in the Diaspora manage to come together in a group of let say 15 people and more and manifest their interest of acquiring housing plots to Kigali City Council by presenting a house construction project which is in line with the Kigali Master Plan, they can be facilitated to get the housing plots as soon as possible with the possibility of getting tax exemptions from Rwanda Development Board.

So far the available plots are in KARAGARAMA-KICUKIRO District, KUMUNIGO-NYAMIRAMBO and KABUGA- KICUKIRO District and the construction has been left to construction companies or property developers;

For Construction companies, they build houses and sell them to housing consumers and agreed to work with the Diaspora. They accept a down payment for a house of about 30%-40% cost of the total value of a house and the rest can be covered through Bank loans. In principle, Interest rates range from 10%-18% per annum.

 How to buy a constructed house in Rwanda (loan or cash)  

In order to facilitate the Rwandan Diaspora, the Diaspora General Directorate has established good relationships with private and public institutions operating in the construction area and will link the Diaspora to its stakeholders like financial institutions and property developers. In the meeting held on 26 November 2009 that brought together DGD and its stakeholders, DGD negotiated on how Rwandans in the Diaspora can own a house at reduced costs.

During the meeting, it was agreed that banks also streamline the financing process by at least a low cost reduction of 30% of the cost of a house and aims to enable Rwandans in Diaspora access credit facilities while construction companies and property consultants in the Diaspora were also advised to cash in on the huge potential.

Rwandans in Diaspora were also advised to open up savings accounts with financial institutions in case they plan to start building or buying plots in the country. This would overcome shortages of funding in the long run when developing starts.

The table below shows the contacts of DGD stakeholders (construction companies and financial institutions) in Rwanda and can be contacted for an already constructed house and credit facilities. It should be noted that the list is not exhaustive and any person interested may do his/her own research, depending on his/her financial means.