He made building a priority

As most people will testify, renting is a nightmare that will impact greatly on your income, thus it becomes everyone’s dream to have their own house. Tonny Mubiru shares his experience and challenges of how he built his house.
About ten years ago, Mubiru embarked on a journey of establishing a house that would be a home for his family. He also decided it was wise to build a reasonably small house; that fit within his income.

Buying land
“My house is located in Ndejje, Central Zone, on Entebbe Road. By the time I bought that plot of land, the place seemed remote, but that’s not the case today,” he says.
“The plot is 85 by 45 by 75 feet and I bought it at Shs11m.” This was one of the hardest parts he had to deal with, he recalls. “I am a construction engineer, and according to the nature of my job, I don’t have a steady source of income, so it was hard for me to have the whole amount I needed to buy land. But the seller let me pay in installments until I completed the payment.”
He first deposited Shs6m and paid the balance in small installments which took him a period of about one year. He then used the plot for farming as he raised funds to start the construction.

The house plan
Because of the limited resources, Mubiru chose to build a small house that occupied 30 by 25 feet of his land. “It’s a two-bedroom-house with a sitting room, dinning, kitchen and two bathrooms. Hiring an architect to draw the house plan cost me Shs450,000. I then took it at Wakiso district head quarter for approval, where I spent about Shs1.2m.

First phase
“After two years, I had collected enough money to kick start construction. This however wasn’t enough to complete the whole house.” He explains that from the money he had saved, he built up to the wall plate level in one month. This cost him about Shs8m.

Second phase
From that level, it took Mubiru two more years to raise funds for roofing and installing windows and doors in the house. “This phrase was very overwhelming on my finances, because I could not roof only a part of the house. I therefore had to stretch to the limits so that the whole house is roofed,” he says.
Immediately after roofing, and installing windows and door frames, he moved into the house, in 2013. “The reason we moved in before I even did the finishing was because I wanted to cut on the costs and increase my savings. I figured I could save the money and use it on the finishing phase instead of paying it as rent,” he mentions.

Challenges
“My biggest challenge was saving up the money for construction. I was still renting, with a family, and school going children, it strained my budget. It meant I had to prioritise some issues and forego others. So this took me longer than I would have wanted to complete the construction.
Furthermore, even when he saved the money, it was always prone to being used to cater for other needs. However, Mubiru says, “What I eventually did was to go to a hardware I trusted and made a deal with them to bring in any amount of money whenever I got it. I used to deposit on building materials and by the time I started building, I had enough material.”

Advice
Mubiru advises that, “It is hard to get money at once, so, whichever money you get counts. The trick is in finding the best way to retain your building savings in that they are not used up in other things”
“It is also only natural that you may not build a house in just one phase, so, take one step at a time. And if you can enter immediately instead of later, even if the house is not completely done, please do, because it will save you a big deal,” he advises.

8m

the money he had saved, which he then used to built up to the wall plate level in one month

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