Uganda fast-tracks Real Estate Bill to curb fraud and unqualified agents
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Uganda's lands minister says the government is fast-tracking the Real Estate Bill to professionalise the property sector, protect the public from fraudulent transactions and improve access to housing finance.
Uganda is fast-tracking the Real Estate Bill to regulate its property sector amid concerns over unqualified agents, fraud and limited access to affordable housing finance, Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister Judith Nabakooba has said.
Nabakooba said the proposed law would help professionalise the real estate industry, protect the public from fraudulent transactions and false representation, and provide mechanisms for holding practitioners accountable. She was speaking on September 9, 2026 during the 25th Annual Conference of the African Real Estate Society (AfRES) in Kampala, held under the theme of transforming African real estate for sustainable growth and innovation.
The minister said reform is becoming more urgent as Africa's urban population grows, with the continent projected to have about 1.3 billion urban residents by 2050 and a housing deficit of more than 50 million units. She identified access to affordable, long-term financing as one of the major constraints to housing development and said Uganda is working towards establishing a mortgage refinancing framework to provide liquidity to primary mortgage lenders.
Racheal Mirembe, a board member of AfRES, said high mortgage interest rates were making home ownership difficult for many Ugandans, noting the lowest rates offered by some banks were about 17 per cent. She called for longer repayment periods to reduce monthly instalments, proposing that mortgage terms be extended from about five years to as much as 25 years.
Nabakooba also warned that climate change should increasingly influence decisions on where and how property is developed, saying floods, extreme heat, drought and water scarcity were already affecting cities and property values and requiring developers and authorities to use flood maps, climate information and disaster-resilient building standards. Makerere University Business School principal Moses Muhwezi said universities should provide reliable property data to government and industry, and raised concerns about informality in a sector where many land agents operate without adequate professional standards.