Judy Rugasira: 25 years in real estate and still building

Judy Rugasira, managing director Knight Frank-Uganda, shows an accolade she got in Pretoria, South Africa. She is one of the few women at top managerial level in the real estate sector in Uganda.
Photos by Shabibah Nakigirigya

What you need to know:

Judy Rugasira is one of the women who have been in the real estate business for long. As we continue to celebrate women in this sector, we take you through Rugasira’s journey in real estate. Some real estate players in Uganda say you cannot talk about real estate business and not mention Rugasira’s contribution – mentoring and nurturing several real estate professionals.

Real estate in Uganda is one of the sectors that had for years been dominated majorly by men. However, as it started getting a footing in the Ugandan economy, more women have come on board. Judy Rugasira Kyanda, who has been at the helm of Knight Frank-Uganda, a real estate agency and consultancy firm as managing director for close to 25 years, is one of those few women who have over the years managed to shape the industry.

Making a career choice
After completing her A’Level about 29 years ago, Rugasira was not quite sure which career path she would take. Her ideal career paths, she says, rotated around her becoming a physiotherapist or lawyer. This, however, did not come to pass. She ended up taking on a path different from what she thought would be suitable for her.

“After my A’Level, I wasn’t quite sure what profession I wanted to pursue. I thought about being a physiotherapist or a lawyer, however, my father, Henry Rugasira, steered me away from Law, saying there were too many lawyers in the world. He advised me to join land management and asked me to think about becoming a valuation surveyor,” she recalls.

Rugasira’s decision to join the real estate sector is one that did not just involve her father. Her father’s friend, Steven Bamwanga, was one of those who thought joining the real estate sector would be good for her.

“My father introduced me to his friend Steven Bamwanga, who was at the time a parliamentarian, land valuer and surveyor. He explained to me what the profession entailed. With that information, I decided to pursue that career path and applied to the University of Reading [in the UK], which was and still is the most respectable university for Land Management globally. I joined University of Reading in 1992 and graduated in 1994.”

Early life
Born on August 31, 1972 to Henry and Martha Rugasira, Judy says she was raised in a family that is responsible for moulding her into what she is today because of the values they instilled in her. “I was raised in a strict but loving home where the difference between right and wrong was very clear. There were no options in between, and no grey areas. It was something that was always ingrained in us from a very young age. I greatly appreciate the tough love my parents gave us, and that is what is responsible for my humble achievements thus far. I am trying to emulate this with my own children, with the hope of inculcating the same values in them at a young age,” she shares.

Rugasira adds: “My father was a businessman, management consultant and entrepreneur who at one point owned the country’s only school chalk factory, while my mother worked as an administrator for Uganda Development Bank.”

Education
She went to Buganda Road Primary School from Primary One to Six before leaving for the UK. In the UK, she went to Ellerslie School, Malvern College, and the University of Reading where she graduated with a Bsc. (Hons) in Land Management. She later also attained a Msc. in International Real Estate from Reading University.

Career highlight
After completing her Bachelor’s degree, Rugasira joined Mason, Owen & Partners, a firm of Chartered Surveyors in Mayfair, London. Later, she would return to Uganda in 1995 and start working with Steven Bamwanga [then a Land Economist in Uganda] as her first employer.

After four years of working in Uganda, she went back to the UK to pursue a masters degree in International Real Estate at the University of Reading. It was during this time that her biggest career turning point happened.

“While I was pursuing my Msc in the UK, I was head hunted by Knight Frank, who offered me the opportunity to work with them in Uganda as their managing director. I took the offer and I have been working with them since,”Rugasira shares.

Achievements
For the last 25 years Judy Rugasira has been in the real estate sector, she believes she has managed to contribute to the sector’s growth.
“Through constantly teaching, training and mentoring aspiring property professionals to be ethical, have integrity, and work hard, I like to believe I have played a large role in shaping the real estate profession and business in Uganda, in one way or another. Knight Frank is a brand known for its integrity and professionalism and it all starts at the top. If I didn’t uphold the core values that I expect from my colleagues, that would be hypocrisy.”
“I am proud of the fact that I have had a positive influence on the property market with regards to creating a semblance of professionalism by the way I conduct myself,” she adds.

Challenges
One of the biggest challenges Rugasira says she has had to face over the years working in the real estate sector is corruption.
“It is little wonder Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In order to address this issue, I have had to train and mentor the younger generation. At Knight Frank, I mentor my staff and the one thing I try to inculcate in them is integrity. You cannot attach a value to integrity, neither can you buy it, it is priceless. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, and a second to destroy it. Integrity goes beyond being corrupt, it is more about being dependable in every way,” she says.

The other challenge she says she has faced is people being dishonest. This, according to her, is happening in work places and families.
“At the end of the day, people prefer the truth, whether it is pleasing or not. I have to be accountable in all that I do. Whether it is at work, my family, myself or God. And accountability requires taking responsibility for all of one’s actions, good or bad.”

Balancing work and family
“When I started my career, my work-life balance was very poor and biasedly skewed towards the work side of the scale,” she says, adding that this all changed after getting married. She decided to try to balance work and family.
“When I got married and had children, I made a conscious decision to manage my work schedule to ensure that I didn’t carry work home. I stopped working on weekends.”

She also adds that: “I also make sure that I take note of schedule and attend my children’s events at school because those are the moments that mean the most to them. Such memories can’t be re- lived. It also helps that I have set up a very good support network around me to ensure that I can delegate and multi-task without compromising on either work or family time.”

What drives her
“Passion for what I do and an insatiable desire to keep raising the bar in how we work. Achieving targets alone without having an impact on those we lead and manage is not enough. Leaving a legacy of successful and professional mentees and seeing them become authorities in their fields of specialisation, for me is more satisfying than any financial reward.
My satisfaction is realised when I invest time and effort in mentoring and training people and they succeed and scale to greater heights,” she shares.

Her advice to women
“The real estate industry is a great industry. Women should not limit their ambitions to their gender. Success is not chauvinistic or misogynistic, so women should boldly pursue their dreams.”