Stop whining and look for the money

Editor,Allow me to respond to Sunny Ntayombya’s opinion, “Is it possible to own a house before 50?”, which appeared in Wednesday’s issue of The New Times. In many countries real estate keeps appreciating unless there is a crisis like depression. I am sure when you will own your house you will be more than glad to see that its value has appreciated and you can even get money from the bank (home equity for example) to refinance, or rent it at high price. I believe you could own your house much before 50s basically, first of all, by learning the saving culture to securing your home equity or down payment.Saving is a good culture to learn even when you have a small income. When you get used, you will continue to save more as your income increases. However, be realistic for your first house and invest in what you can afford. The next thing is to keep becoming a better person with more skills that are on high demand so that your income increases continually. Or you could even consider starting a side business along your normal work.I would recommend everyone to read a couple of Personal Development Books, and endeavour acquires entrepreneurship skills that are really helpful with regard to initiating a business. Also becoming a better, skilled person will attract pay raise or more business returns.With more income, you will be able to reduce your mortgage loan much faster and there you go! In brief, my small advice will be “don’t complain about prices, go look for the money” and let the market forces to adjust the pricing.AntonioEditor,I am afraid the responsible government officials are just going to look at Sunny’s article as just another opinion piece. Yet it’s a sorry situation we’re in, dear government. CSS estates in Gacuriro cost between Rwf20m-25m a unit in 2002, and are now at Rwf70m! I am wondering what their new estates will cost in 10 years from now if one is at Rwf65m plus! I ask this because I am only wondering what the percentage increase in the salaries of most Rwandese will be by that time?Patrick NdahiroEditor,I was surprised to find that what is happening in Rwanda in the housing sector is a carbon copy of the situation in Tanzania. I do not know which country learned from the other. Whichever the case, here in Tanzania there is a housing project run by National Housing, which they call ‘affordable’ housing, but in real terms to the great majority of Tanzanians, they are not affordable at all.Sunny urged the Social Security Board to build houses and sell them to people but I caution not to copy what’s happening in Tanzania, where the Social Security agency built houses and then sold them to banks which administered the whole mortgage process, and eventually the units became extremely expensive.Manzi

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Stop whining and look for the money