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Mpigi town is uncharted territory for property investors
View of Mpigi Town. Property prices here are still low compared to prices of property in other towns close to the City. Photo by Tony Mushoborozi
What you need to know:
- While all the major towns in a 30km-radius around Kampala are struggling with overinflated demand for property, Mpigi town is so far outside the messy property market. The prices are to die for. This is the time to tiptoe to the town and invest for the future without telling a soul.
Of all towns in the 30km-radius of Kampala, Mpigi has the best property opportunities for anyone interested in property, it is safe to say. While it is as close to Kampala as Entebbe town for instance, property prices here are simply to die for. To give a fitting example, an acre of land in any of the three prominent hills on which the town lies doesn’t go beyond the Shs50m mark. In comparison, other big towns in the greater Kampala metropolitan areas are simply out of reach.
The property market here shows all signs of being untouched by the inorganic property demand that has inundated all other big towns surrounding Kampala.
For some reason, the country’s most prolific middle class (read Kampala dwellers) seem to have refused to consider Mpigi as a worthy hamlet in which to build their posh homes. For that reason, the residential properties in and around Mpigi, lack a touch of ‘posh’ that characterises metropolitan taste.
The homes here, even the new ones under construction, are simple and basic. Whether in aesthetic, cost or cast, homes in Mpigi are purely country. That can only be a sign that the owners are born-and-bred, completely lacking in any characteristics of city dwellers.
When all is said and done, the demand for property in Mpigi is, and has been relatively low. And for that, the prices have not gone through the roof unlike in other places in the same radius around the country’s capital.
The low prices
The most expensive standard plot of land in Mpigi town is Shs10m. Such a plot is one of many to be found on the eastern-facing escarpment of Mawonve hill west of the town. Any plot on this steep hill affords you the full view of not only the town and every sunrise, but also of the westward highway that is Masaka Road. Most plots here belong to (and have been bought from) a renown property company, and that can be a good thing. Sometimes a company is easier to deal with than with individual property traders. That price goes down if you find an individual trader on the same hill.
Further north out of town, plots in villages like Bugayi and Masujju, most which belong to other property companies go for much less. A plot here in these hillside villages are is as affordable and Shs5m. No plot goes beyond the Shs7m mark.
Bugayi is a beautiful hill that would make any home shine like a lamp on a lampstand. But because it is situated in an area where the demand is so low, the prices are pocket-friendly.
Property investment
This however will not be the case for long, not with the kind of population growth rate the country is enjoying currently. This is perfect for a small-time investor. With just Shs10m, one can buy two plots and plant eucalyptus on them and let it grow.
Five years from now, the prices will be incomparably higher than the current rates and the small-time investor will turn into a small-time tycoon overnight.
Ronald Kagurire, a propertybroker in Mpigi Town, showed us larger chunks of land in Bugayi and Masujju, as well as other villages around the Mpigi township.
An acre in any of these villages starts at around Shs20m. This offers better opportunities to bring in profit sooner.
“What most individual property traders do [read former property brokers] is to buy an acre and cut into into several smaller plots for immediate resale. This is because we need the money to buy more stock,” Kagurire says.
Farming
Better opportunities await anyone who will let that acre farrow for a year or two. Or better still, that acre can be turned into a farm for a period of time as one waits for the demand to go up.
Villages around Mpigi Town are perfect grasslands with flourishing mburara grass. The grass, after which Mbarara, is named is a quintessential cow delicacy. This means that as you wait for the property market to reach Mpigi, you can enjoy your short period as a cattle farmer.
For more acreages of farm land, one would have to move further out of town for better prices.
Most villages around Mpigi are currently being wired to the electricity grid. This means that whether your plan is to build a home or to build a manufacturing plant at your farm, Mpigi is ready for the investment.
