Can ending individual homebuilding improve housing standards?

Housing experts have backed proposals to gradually phase out individual homebuilding in favour of organised housing developments, but caution that the transition must be accompanied by affordable financing and supportive policies to avoid pricing ordinary Rwandans out of homeownership. ALSO READ: REMA boss calls for end to individual homebuilding The Director General of the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), Juliet Kabera, recently argued that coordinated housing developments would make it easier to enforce standards on drainage systems, rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment, air pollution control and the use of appropriate construction materials, compared with households building independently. The proposal has generated debate on social media, with many questioning whether organised housing would make decent homes less affordable. Housing ecosystem, not regulation alone Vivien Munyaburanga, President of the Governing Council of the Rwanda Urban Planners Institute (RUPI), said international experience shows organised housing succeeds only when backed by a complete housing ecosystem. The model to end individual homebuilding is feasible, but international experience shows that organised development succeeds as an ecosystem and fails as a mere regulation, he said. He pointed to Singapore, where the government combined public land assembly, housing finance through the Central Provident Fund (CPF), a dedicated public developer, the Housing & Development Board (HDB) and secured 99-year lease ownership. Today, about 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDB-built homes, while roughly 90 per cent own their homes. ALSO READ: What is the best housing model for Mount Kigali, Jali, Rebero? According to Munyaburanga, Rwanda's success would depend on three key pillars being developed alongside the policy: land assembly mechanisms, long-term affordable housing finance and sufficient certified professional capacity. He added that organised developments would also improve compliance because regulators would oversee licensed professionals rather than inspecting thousands of individual construction sites. Professionals would integrate drainage systems, rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment, air-quality management and appropriate construction materials at the design stage. Protecting aspiring homeowners To ensure the transition does not disadvantage aspiring homeowners, Munyaburanga proposed five safeguards. First, implementation should begin in designated priority areas under Kigali's master plan rather than through an immediate nationwide ban. Second, landowners should participate in redevelopment through land pooling and readjustment so they become shareholders and beneficiaries instead of being displaced. Third, every organised housing project should include affordability measures. ALSO READ: PHOTOS: How Nyabisindu housing project will look like With 57 per cent of urban households earning below Rwf200,000 a month, he said projects should incorporate rent-to-own schemes, housing cooperatives and incremental ownership models. Fourth, households outside designated priority areas should continue building individually under certified professional supervision using pre-approved house designs. Finally, he said success should be measured by increased homeownership rather than simply the number of organised developments. Improving standards Civil engineer Papias Kazawadi Dedeki, a member of the Institution of Engineers Rwanda, supports the proposal, arguing that financial constraints should not come at the expense of housing quality. He said organised housing would strengthen accountability by placing responsibility on qualified professionals. The limited financial capacity of people seeking homes should not compromise housing standards, he said, adding that substandard housing should not be tolerated and that construction laws and guidelines must be enforced. ALSO READ: Ten things to know about new settlement guidelines Kazawadi also called for Prior Learning Programmes to certify experienced masons without formal technical qualifications, noting that some skilled masons outperform formally trained graduates. He further urged the government to extend roads, electricity, water and drainage infrastructure to low-income settlements to make organised housing more affordable and improve compliance with standards. Calls for flexibility Electrical engineer Innocent Hakizimana says that compliance depends more on qualified professionals than on whether a house is built by a company. To ensure compliance with building regulations, it is not simply a matter of having a building constructed by a company. Rather, the work should be carried out by engineers who understand the applicable construction regulations, he said. It would therefore be more accurate to say that companies employ professionals who are knowledgeable about building regulations. After all, a company is made up of people; it is not an entity that operates on its own. Meanwhile, Bernard Nirembere, who has been a mason for years suggests categorising buildings by complexity before requiring organised development. He said rural homeowners, in particular, may struggle to afford architects and engineers for simple residential houses. Affordability remains the biggest concern Governance and social development policy analyst Joseph Nkurunziza Ryarasa described the proposal as logical and forward-looking, especially as Kigali grapples with rapid urbanisation, population growth and climate change. Ensuring compliance with drainage standards, wastewater management requirements, geotechnical assessments and environmental regulations requires technical capacity and oversight that neither households nor regulators may always possess. Organised developers are generally better positioned to meet these requirements consistently, he said. However, he warned that the advantages of organised housing do not automatically solve the affordability challenge. For decades, the primary pathway to homeownership for ordinary Rwandans has been incremental construction. Families purchase land, save gradually and build in phases over many years according to their financial means. This approach has enabled thousands of lower- and middle-income households to become homeowners despite limited access to affordable credit. He noted that private developers naturally target middle- and upper-income buyers because those markets are financially viable. A family capable of building a modest house over ten or fifteen years may simply not have the financial capacity to purchase a completed housing unit that requires substantial upfront financing. Rather than eliminating individual homebuilding altogether, Ryarasa advocates stronger enforcement of building standards while expanding access to affordable mortgages, rent-to-own programmes, housing cooperatives and better environmental oversight. If, as a country, we are serious about transitioning towards organised housing development, then the question of housing finance can no longer remain secondary. Access to affordable housing finance remains one of the greatest barriers to homeownership for ordinary citizens. He stressed that Rwanda's main challenge is not whether individual homebuilding should end, but whether affordable, locally appropriate alternatives exist for the millions who still rely on it. Housing authority backs gradual shift The Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) also supports a gradual transition. Its Director General, Alphonse Rukaburandekwe, said the enactment of Law No. 023/2025 regulating architects, engineers and quantity surveyors marked an important milestone in improving professionalism within Rwanda's construction sector. In the same way, having housing increasingly developed by professional companies can be introduced gradually, enabling citizens to access better-quality, professional construction services while helping to prevent unplanned and disorderly development, he said.

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Can ending individual homebuilding improve housing standards?