House hunting in Kampala

I have been reacquainted with Kampala’s nooks and crannies, I’ve driven on the dusty roads of this beloved city in desperate search of a place to lay my head.
Finding a house in Kampala is rather draining. If the house is not too small, then it is too far out, if the finishing is not shady, then the house is too expensive. The rooms are ill proportioned; landlords squeeze 3 rooms in a space sufficient for 2.
Now that everyone has woken up to inbuilt wardrobes, instead of curving a space that sinks into the wall, wardrobes are built in a protruding fashion, making the room even smaller. Some landlords’ think because they have plastered a few tiles into the house it’s justifiable to charge exorbitant rates, even when the light fixtures are crooked. One broker was so excited to show me a house because it had a sitting room and a dinning. Uh … isn’t it standard to have both? Apparently not.

One can get a house any where depending on the location and price. 100, 000/- can get you a hole in the wall in some slum area and depending on where you go, it either gets better or worse as the price peaks. Houses on the market are going for 500,000 shillings and up it’s crazy! The last house I rented had 3 bed rooms, it was located right by the road side in Bukoto for only 250,000/-. Now, that price is laughable. Land is truly appreciating at a terrific speed.
On my quest to view a wide variety of houses, I gave Google SMS a shot. The instructions - type “Rent a house” mention the location of interest and text it to 6007. Yee! Uganda is stepping up its game. I got leads to brokers. Now, you would think these are professional, decent, real estate agents right? Wrong. For starters the young man I contacted didn’t have the courtesy to call, he beeped. When we met, stating his fee was the first order of business. He said he was aware of 3 bed roomed houses going at a good rate but first I had to drive him some place to collect the keys. Our first destination was on the out skirts of civilization and miserable to say the least. The second house he attempted to show was locked, he bluntly asked us to peep through the windows. At this point we decided it was a waste of time, paid him half his fee and drove back to sanity.
A broker we met in Kasanga probably didn’t conceptualize what we wanted. In one house, no 2 doors could be open simultaneously; 1 had to be closed so you could have enough space to open the other. In another instance, the builders where in the middle of digging up the floor, the broker claimed it would be ready over the weekend, hmm a likely story! Another house was perfectly located, had great proportions, was enclosed in a fence, but the house itself was falling to pieces. The repairs needed were more than we were willing to invest. So we drove off, with heads hang low; money spent, time wasted and nothing to consider.

Recommended brokers like Henry may seem more credible. He is stationed in Ntinda, judging from his Rav4 in the parking lot, business is good. He asked for our price range, and then proceeded to show us houses way above our means. He claimed anything below what he had shown was not neat enough. When we insisted on seeing more options, he delegated the duty to his colleague, who searched high and low to show us various available options. So we are down to 2 houses on our top list.

I need to build my own house and soon.