Delivering low-income housing in Rwanda

The government is already committed to promoting urban densification, climate resiliency, connectivity within and between cities, and an inclusive and participatory urban development process. The recently released national housing policy aims to improve the low-income housing supply, improve urban living conditions, and prevent the formation of informal settlements. It attempts to involve the private sector and to be flexibly inclusive so that different approaches can be trialed.

Now the challenge is to move forward from policy-making to local level demonstration projects, which will allow policymakers, private firms, and residents to evaluate different methods for low-income housing (for example, upgrading, site and services models, cooperative housing, etc.) and their financing options (for example, cooperative renting, rent to own, self-construction, individual or group mortgage, and micro-finance). The results will help institutions at national and local levels understand what methods work best in Kigali’s context, and scale up the implementation of successful models.

Also Read: The role of Rwanda Development Bank (RDB) in overcoming housing challenges in Kigali