Watumishi Housing changes name in new plan
Prices of Watumishi Housing Company houses range between Sh27 million and Sh76 million each to enable even low-income earners to afford them. PHOTO|FILE
What you need to know:
- The change of name means an opportunity to the industry in terms of widening the range of real estate products and other collective investment that prospective investors can benefit from
Dar es Salaam. A housing developer has changed its name to Watumishi Housing Investments (WHI) from Watumishi Housing Company in order to broaden services offering and give more prospective investor in financial markets as well as to capture the recovery real estate markets.
The change of name means an opportunity to the industry in terms of widening the range of real estate products and other collective investment that prospective investors can benefit from.
“The main reason for changing the name to WHI is to broaden services offering as per its original objectives. The existing name doesn’t capture the investment and fund management aspect, which is also a core function of this entity alongside the provision of affordable housing to employees in the public as well as the private sector,” said the WHI chief executive officer, Dr Fred Msemwa. He told The Citizen that with Tanzania’s economy in the middle income status, opportunities for growing the mortgage market by availing funds for people to acquire homes were high. This, he said, would not only benefit home buyers but it will also indirectly help in formalising the real estate market, thus making it contribute more to the government through simplifying collection of taxes and fees involved in the entire value chain of the real estate transactions. WHI was also finalising establishing a new fund to be called Faida Fund which will attract investors from people of all walks of life who include bodadoda riders, food vendors as well as employees from both the private and public sectors.
“So far WHI has built 973 affordable homes across 19 regions in Tanzania. We have been able to operationalise a system that has made it possible for employees - both in the public and private sectors - to use their salaries to buy homes,” he said.
, noting that event that payment mode has been simplified through the introduction of the tenant purchase system. The system allows employees to pay for houses as if they were paying monthly rentals and finally, owning the house.
