Know your hood : Nalumunye, Southern Bypass driving up the price of land
A few years back, land in Nalumunye was reasonably priced, now the cost of land has more than doubled. Photo By Abubaker Lubowa
What you need to know:
Nalumunye is a 7Km, 10 minutes drive away from the city center, Nalumunye is located on a hill with an excellent view of Kampala. It has two access routes, Rubaga Road and Seguku
About 2006, Jomayi, a new entrant in land sales emerged after the fall of Property Masters. They had to find means of rising above the public’s suspicion created by Patrick Kasulu who apparently fleeced many people without giving them the land they had paid dearly for.
They cut a professional niche through advertising and giving instant land titles. One of the areas they started with that was divided into a minimum of 50ft X 100ft plot was Nalumunye, a relatively unknown place before this, and it was going for Shs6.5m per piece. It seemed too good to be true but the people who bought land then are now grateful they took a leap of faith.
Staggering property prices
Nalumunye can be accessed from several sides; those coming from Masaka Road can go through Kyengera, and from Entebbe Road, a diversion off Sseguku can take you to Nalumunye. Still, from Rubaga Road through Wankulukuku, there is a 2 Km stretch connecting Wankulukuku straight to Nalumunye.
Given this 7Km proximity from the city centre, the price of land has since quadrupled over the last six years to the same plot going for between Shs25-30 m.
Felix Nakabale, a resident of the area attributes this price rise to both the expansion of the city, and the Northern bypass that is slated to go through the area with the affected residents already paid off.
Well-planned amenities
An estate, Jomayi set up Nalumunye with organized living in mind. Land was allocated for building places of worship and already, the Anglican and the Muslim fraternity have set up their respective worship houses.
A recreation centre and an already operational shopping mall called Lebron were all adequately planned for. The area has a number of fairly good daycare centres and nursery schools like Mantopal and Mothercare. The estate also has Velfed Kiddies Primary School. However, there is no secondary school as yet. The estate also has a planned-for police post with police quarters also built by Jomayi.
Difficult public transport, moderate rental prices
But if you do not have private means of transport, leaving Nalumunye can be a nightmare. You are lucky if you find a taxi as soon as you get to the stage but usually it is waiting that can even take up to an hour by the roadside.
Like many places where transport is difficult, renting a relatively nice house is quite cheap. Henry Damba, the LC 1 secretary for Defence who was born in the area in 1962, says a two bedroomed house will go for between Shs250,000-Shs300,000 while a full house, tiled and fenced off will go for Shs800,000. This is quite affordable if compared to places like Bweyogerere, Kansanga and Ntinda. But being a residential estate, such rentals are not commonplace and Damba says he does not know of any that have been on the market without tenants for a long time.
Without security incidents
Apart from the occasional petty thefts and cases of domestic violence, the OC CID at Nalumunye Police Post Doreen Kaakyo says Nalumunye is majorly free of crime. But the situation hasn’t always been like this. A few years back, houses used to get broken into, cars were vandalized and women got raped in the area until residents beefed up police operations in the area.
“We have a motorised patrol and enough manpower which has come about majorly from good community policing where the community partners with police to find solutions to the problems affecting them,” Kaakyo explained. She adds that cases of theft of building materials and gunmen setting up roadblocks and robbing motorists were also frequent but these too have drastically reduced because of the now heavy police presence in the area.
