Real Estate developers from the East African Community (EAC) are set to form an association to facilitate them to work in an organised manner as well as explore the emerging market opportunities, Mohammed Nyaoga, EA-Chair Real Estate Advisory Council revealed recently in Kigali.

The scope of the meeting that took place last week in Kigali was to create opportunities and investments in a much more coordinated manner.

"In the region there are many real estate, capital market investment opportunities and if you have an organised group that brings together all the forces in the industry, you,” Nyaoga said.

"The purpose of the council is to bring together real estate players in the region, because most of the advisory groups in the region are fragmented not coordinated at all. So we thought of putting these councils together to have one real organised association of the real estate players,” he added.

He also said that the industry face serious challenges. "First we have very weak institutions, corruption in most of these institutions, many barriers in most countries but we have identified them now we are going to see how we can address and implement them,” Nyaoga added.

Rwanda Development Board’s CEO, John Gara also said that the conference would help dealers in the industry to identify and create investment opportunities in the country.

He said that they would also be looking at financing from banks and how to promote equity funding in the market as another alternative.

" RDB is trying to attract investors not only to setup construction companies but also be able to produce construction materials in Rwanda which will reduce on the building costs eventually which will reduce costs of houses,” Gara said.

Rwandan house units fall in a deficit of 20,000 out of the estimated 25,000 per year. The expo brought together key players, professionals and all dealers in the industry from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.

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