Fort Portal property boom lifts city revenue as building approvals surge
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Fort Portal City collected Shs4.174 billion in local revenue in 2025/26 against a Shs3.167 billion target, with property-related duties overshooting to Shs1.569 billion as development applications more than doubled.
A construction boom in Fort Portal Tourism City is reshaping the city's finances, with fees from building approvals, property rates, occupation permits, property transfers and physical planning emerging as a major source of locally generated revenue.
The city projected Shs3.167 billion in local revenue for the 2025/2026 financial year but collected Shs4.174 billion, according to its local revenue performance report for the year ended 30 June 2026. Property-related duties had an approved target of Shs1.018 billion and brought in Shs1.569 billion. Building approval fees alone generated Shs987.84 million against a budget of Shs305 million, while property rates produced Shs274 million and rate arrears a further Shs86.644 million.
Other property lines also beat target: property transfers raised Shs26 million against Shs5 million, temporary structures Shs93.6 million against Shs61 million, applications for town plots and land titles Shs52 million, and occupation permits Shs49 million against Shs11 million. The physical planning department contributed Shs1.111 billion of the city's local revenue.
Peter Wandera, the city's senior physical planner, told a budget conference that the department processed 161 development applications in 2025/2026 but handled 420 in the first quarter of 2026/2027 alone, covering June to September. He said the city's Physical Development Plan is about 50 per cent complete and that the department inherited a backlog of roughly 600 development applications that it is clearing through planning committees.
Fort Portal, which became a city and was designated a tourism city on 1 July 2020, covers about 136 square kilometres in North and Central divisions across 196 villages. For 2026/2027 the city expects Shs1.285 billion from property-related duties and had already collected Shs910 million by 30 September, including Shs715 million in building approval fees and Shs119.1 million in occupation permits, according to figures presented by acting chief finance officer Philip Nyakoojo. Total local revenue for 2027/2028 is projected at Shs4.66 billion, with property duties expected to contribute Shs1.33 billion, including Shs1 billion from building approvals.