By JOHNSON KANAMUGIRE

More by this Author

Bugesera is emerging as Kigali’s most attractive satellite town after it recorded one of the highest number of land transactions over the past three years, driven by migration.

The area’s proximity to Kigali City, the construction of the country’s largest airport as well as the access to key infrastructure facilities are driving the scramble for land by both residential and commercial property developers.

Migration and spatial mobility figures show that Bugesera has increasingly become the destination of a huge influx of people moving there largely in search of land for housing and other investments.

Data on land transactions for 2015 to 2018 shows that Bugesera District outperformed several districts hosting secondary cities while inching closer to numbers recorded by urban districts like Nyarugenge, Kicukiro and Gasabo.

“What the high number of transaction means is that there is a growing number of property buyers and sellers in the area. That justifies why the property value keeps increasing yearly and this trend is unlikely to stop,” said Pierre Celestin Kabanda, a property valuer.

The trend, he said, had already seen prices of property go up particularly in Nyamata town, Ntarama and along the planned Airport belt, shores of road corridor and other sites with key amenities.

The focus is also on locations closer to the Nyamata-Nemba road, Nyamata Hospital, the planned Bugesera Stadium and a number of schools.

These areas experienced extensive expansion in terms of settlement pattern and economic activities over recent years, earning Nyamata the Kigali satellite city title.

The district is home to hotels like Golden Tulip, Palast Rock Hotel, among others.

The latest land reference prices released by the institute of real property valuers showed that Nyamata ranked among the locations that recorded the highest number of land transactions and where prices for land parcels kept oincreasing between 2015 and 2017.

Over 2,000 transactions were recorded, with land selling for as much as Rwf47,213 a square metre. Other locations that recorded a high number of transactions were Masaka in Kigali’s Kicukiro District with 2,102 at a maximum price of Rwf 70,435.

This put Bugesera — a rural district situated along the national corridor towards Burundi — in the same league as districts in Kigali City where land transactions and prices are always on the rise.

The 2012 population and housing census ranked Bugesera among the districts that receive a big number of people migrating from Kigali, alongside Rulindo, Rwamagana, Kamonyi and Gicumbi.

The trend barely changed from the migration stock of 2017, which shows the Eastern Province followed Kigali in receiving a high number of migrants in the past five years.

However, unlike in these other suburbs, buyers said Bugesera outperformed the sector’s average price growth especially in areas located within reach of key infrastructure facilities.

The growth rate however decelerated towards the end of last year when the district suspended further issuance of construction permits citing the need to stop ongoing encroachment on arable land.

Elie Hakizimana, Bugesera District executive secretary told Rwanda Today that the district had since decided the revisions were needed in the Nyamata town master plan and physical plans for other built up areas, a process expected to be completed by end of January.

“Issuance of construction permits should resume by February when we have proper physical plans in place to guide the growth we see,” he said.