How Mariam Tusubira stumbled into the real estate business at 19

Miriam Tarinyeba Tusubira, the proprietor of Infotrust Property Consultants, is one of the women  who are thriving in the male-dominated real estate industry in Uganda.  Tusubira was born and lived in Masaka up to the age of 13, when she moved to Kampala to live with her elder sister.

“I was very curious and wanted to learn everything. I remember during my Primary Seven vacation, I learnt to weave mats, and I used my Senior Four and Six vacations to study Information Technology from Makerere University,” says Tusubira. 

Starting out

For her internship, the adventurous Tusubira got a placement at Penthouse Hotel in Moyo District near South Sudan border. However, in a short period she moved from being an IT technician to a sales executive. Her customer care prowess earned her so much money that by time her internship ended, Tusubira had saved Shs9m.

Not knowing what to do with her savings, she sought advice from her family who urged her to start a business. She invested Shs2m in a retail shop and used the rest to buy a 100X100ft plot of land in Sonde. 

 “Whenever I made profit in my business, I invested the money into acquiring more land. At first I would ask land brokers about buying certain properties but they would discourage me. Later, on I found out that their advice was based purely on my being female. So, I stopped asking and started buying following my intuition and it paid off,” says Tusubira.  

The real estate bug

During her foray into land property acquisition she made friends with a real estate lawyer who taught her more about the business.

Where she had been investing blindly, Tusubira started making calculated moves and even got out of her comfort zone and started investing in mailo land, freehold tenure, and leasehold which she had previously been wary of.  Her land had started appreciating in value; land she had bought five years ago now cost almost double of what she had paid.

 “There is a time when I had lost hope in education in Uganda and had thought of relocating, to Canada so that my children would get a quality education.  To finance the relocation, I sold one of my valuable plots of land and bought one acre of  mailo land, and two from Kabaka’s land and used the rest to invest in our relocation. The plot I had bought at Shs8m was worth Shs280m seven years later,” says Tusubira.

This kind profit confirmed to her how lucrative the real estate industry is so she decided to pursue it full time.

 “I started buying more of mailo land. I would buy a piece at Shs30m put some few developments in place then subdivide it into plots which would make me about Shs70m,” Tusubira says.

However, as she continued meeting and working with more people, she started noticing malpractices in the business.

“Many developers were too greedy to give clients their rightful sizes of land, even when they would still have made enough profit without cheating,” says the real estate investor.

Going formal

Tusubira felt the need for change in the way business was being done in the industry, so she started a business that would give people information they needed on property. 

And that is how Infotrust Property Consultants   came to be. The company helps clients make research on properties they are interested in worldwide. 

With her IT background, Tusubira found it easy to merge technology and real estate to create a better property acquisition experience for her clients.

The company uses dependable, compliant data to help clients make smart business decisions. As a global, real estate consultancy company, Infotrust Property Consultants  works with global brands to optimise the collection, management, and understanding of their market.

“I realised if you want to retire early comfortably, invest in real-estate. And I wanted to do that for everyone by eliminating the fear and mystery that surrounds real estate. I am glad to say that I have been successful in doing this by availing the right information for clients,” says Tusubira.

Not only does the company provide information but they also buy and sell land, develop properties for clients, carry out surveys, process letters of administration, land transfers and help clients recover their land titles or process special titles for those who lost theirs.

Challenges

Even with the obvious experience, Tusubira has in real estate, she says she still has a hard time getting clients to trust her with their money because she is a woman playing in a man’s world.

“But I am now making inroads into the industry by giving every client the best possible experience so that they end up becoming our ambassadors,” she notes.

Getting genuine land is a problem and there are a lot of crooks waiting to take advantage of unsuspecting clients. But the real estate investor says she can now tell which land is problematic and stay away from it, however lucrative the deal seems. 

“Although I was able to and the family was willing, there is a  piece of  land I had to leave because I could tell that was all they had for survival and they were selling out of desperation. I believe that making profit should not blind someone to other people’s suffering,” she says.

Advice

Real estate companies should research about the land they intend to buy for a peaceful settlement of their clients. This will remove the fear of buying land from the people.

Do the right thing. Give people the value  for their money by giving them the right sizes of their land.

One should be able to fit a six-bedroom house with a small garden on a 50X100 piece of land.

You will gain more profit plus a good reputation when you have a satisfied client.

Follow up on your staff because there will be many things going on under your nose. Follow up on your clients, to see if they have been treated well. Get time and check on them. I have set aside  a day I check on my clients to see if they have been served well.

Clients

When you buy land, demarcate it no matter how small it is.

Know your purpose for your land so you get the right places with the right facilities.

You have all the right to know everything about your land. It is also important to make a well-informed decision well-informed on the land you want to buy.

Have different opinions about your titles from your company, government, or even a personal lawyer.

Trust that there are genuine companies to help you to invest in property.

Understanding mailo land

The mailoland tenure system is where land is registered and owned in perpetuity with its holder having a land title for it. This land tenure in Uganda has its basis from the allocation of land pursuant to the 1900 Uganda Agreement, subject to legislative qualifications. Land in Uganda held under mailo tenure is mainly confined to the central region of Uganda.

 The mailo tenure system recognises occupancy by tenants (locally known as Bibanja holders), whose relationship with their overlords or land lords is governed and guided by the provisions of the Land Act. Mailo land, like freehold is registered under the Registration of Titles Act.

All transactions must therefore be entered in a register guaranteed by the state. Under this tenure, the holder of a mailo land title has absolute ownership of that land.

At present, there are no more new titles issued for land administered under Mailo tenure since all titles were issued before 1928. What is being done today is a mere further subdivision of the already existing titles issued prior to 1928 and changing the names on the titles to new ownership.

Achievements

● I have employed up to 20 people and satisfied clients keep me going with their uplifting feedback.

Future prospects

● In about two years, I will have settled quite a number of people in the different estates I have invested in as one of the biggest real estate dealers in Uganda.

● I intend to train many people on what I do and look forward to employing more people or helping them start something of their own.

● My daughter loves charity work. She asked me to buy her land so we can build houses for needy single mothers as they gain their footing. That is a project I have started on.