Gov’t slashes land prices in Kigali City

KIGALI - A Cabinet meeting that sat Wednesday slashed land prices in Kigali City. The meeting which was chaired by President Paul Kagame set the reference land price range at between Rwf 168 in Muko Cell in Jali sector and Rwf 1,531 per square metre in Kiyovu. A city official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told The New Times that a square metre of land in lower Kiyovu currently costs Rwf, 15,000 while upper standing is at Rwf, 25,000. Kiyovu is part of the Central Business District. Earlier on, natural resources minister, Stanislas Kamanzi had told The New Times that government was working on modalities where costs of infrastructure can be separated from the real cost of land. A developer can reimburse costs of infrastructure over a period of time. An earlier Cabinet meeting had directed that land prices were skyrocketing and modalities had to be developed to tame these prices. It also appointed taskforce to come up with land price regime. The minister contends that land prices in Kigali are relatively lower compared to other cities in the region like Kampala or Nairobi. “But government, like it did this Wednesday, can decide to lower the prices further in the interest of development;” he said adding that people have to be expropriated to pave way for hotels, schools which in turn create employment for them. The City Council has been stuck with 9.7ha of land that expropriated in Kiyovu with funding from the Social Security Fund of Rwanda at a cost of Rwf, 2.4bn. However, when contacted, the pension body’s Managing Director, Henry Gaperi told The New Times that the new prices will not cause loss to the fund. “Get government right, reference land prices are for empty land,” he said adding that if that was the case, all investors would lose. Ends

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Gov’t slashes land prices in Kigali City