One of the questions I get asked a lot is ‘What are the costs of living in Rwanda?’. This question is very complicated and in order to answer I have to divide it into multiple parts. This is part one about the costs of housing and everything around it (Rent, Utilities and Property taxes). Of course, if you stick around, in the end I’ll tell you how I was able to find my house in one of Rwanda's most expensive and safest neighborhoods without being overcharged and with a decent rent. 1. How to find a house The house you live in determines your quality of life. It is really worth the effort to take your time, or even spend a bit extra money to find a house that makes you feel at home. There are 3 main ways to find a house in Rwanda: 1) Through a ‘professional’ real estate agent aka broker aka (umu Commissionaire, that’s how they are called here. ) Umu commissionaire or real estate broker, or agent, is simply someone who connects house seekers to available houses for rent or sale. I put the asterisk on “Professional” because anyone in Rwanda can be a broker, there are no rules or regulations or qualifications as far as I know at this moment. So anyone who connects a home seeker, to an available house can call themself a broker. There are two types of brokers: A regular broker ; a self proclaimed broker who gets the job done, and the more ‘professional’ ones. The ones I am talking about in this video. You can recognize ‘professional’ brokers by 2 things: their prices and their level of communication. They speak good English and tend to over communicate, like sharing their prices upfront. They usually work within a company, they don’t charge you money upfront for their transportation and they follow up with you. In Kigali, these ‘professional’ brokers are usually people who are not from Rwanda, or have lived outside of Rwanda for a long time like I did. Their service is good and they know exactly what kind of houses people, who are not Rwandan locals, like. However, they are not cheap compared to the other 2 options that I will be mentioning. Once you have agreed upon a house, you pay them a commission of anything between 50% to 100% rent. Or a flat fee of $500-$1000, depending on the property. If you are buying a house their commission is usually around 2-5% of the purchase price. There is some small room for negotiation but it’s not common. 2) Facebook/ M2M: The Second way is through facebook or mouth 2 mouth. If you have a bit more time, or want to save some money you can use facebook and find a house by yourself. There are many facebook groups about living in Rwanda, and each group gets many daily posts with listings. These groups are where the ‘regular’ brokers like to post house listings on a daily basis.‘Regular’ brokers are usually Rwandans, their communication style is usually a bit stiff if you don’t speak Kinyarwanda or understand how Rwandans talk in general. Their prices differ as well, but they are generally much cheaper and very much negotiable. In the Facebook posts each listing comes with a phone number of the broker you can call to arrange a visit to the house. You can look through them and call the broker if you want to visit one of the houses. These brokers will usually charge an “engagement, aka visitation’ fee, to visit the house. Usually between 5-10$. These prices are also negotiable, so don’t be afraid to negotiate for lower prices or more visits for the same 5 to 10 dollars. If you don’t have Facebook, you can also just ask anyone you know in Rwanda, if they can recommend a broker. This is how local Rwandans do it. You will still have a pay an engagement fee, but that’s usually just transportation money of 2-3$ Once you have your dream house, you pay a commission fee of 25%-50% of the rent. Or a flat fee of $50-100. Again, very much negotiable depending on your agreement. 3) Walking in neighborhoods This is definitely your cheapest option. Just walk around in the neighborhood you fancy, and knock on the gates of the house. Ask the gate men or women, or any one who opens, whether there are houses available. I did this with my cousin, when I was moving. It was quite a nice experience. It does take a lot of time and patience though. Especially in the hot sun of Kigali. It’s not so common in more expensive neighborhoods with a lot of gates. It works best in the cheaper neighborhoods. 2. House prices The house prices depend on the type of house you want. Do you want a house in a gate and a big garden or do you want to live with multiple people in the same compound? You can also choose to live in an apartment, but even then you need to think about the option to rent it furnished or unfurnished. In general there are 4 categories of rent prices A) Between $500 - $2000 a month. These are very nice houses, in nice neighborhoods and you can rent them furnished or unfurnished. Most expats like to rent a room in a big house together for around 300$ per room, including utilities. B) $150 - $500: small houses or houses outside of the city. C) $70 - $150: small house. These are called ghetto’s. D) -$ 70: These are also small houses, usually in impoverished neighborhoods. 3. Utilities All utilities here are prepaid. It means there is no automatic payment. Electricity $10-30, you pay through a monitor that hangs somewhere outside your house. Cooking gas bother around $5-10. Water $2 - 15 Garbage tax $2-5 Security tax $2-5 Total: 16 – 65 a month For home owners they also pay taxes: Property taxes and building value taxes, which are paid annually. Property tax is the tax you pay for the plot of land you own: This Plot tax is between $0 - $0.30 p. m2 depending on the location (rural or kgl city centre, availability of basic infrastructure such as electricity, water, paved road etc. You also pay tax on the value of the house on that property. Which is 1% of the current market value of your house. This tax law is new, and is being phased-in over a 4 year period. In 2019, first year when the tax law started, it was Year 1= 0,25, In Year 2020= 0.50%, In Year 2021 = 0.75%, And in Year 2022 = 1% https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsybcJ2X40 Let’s do some quick math: For example : If you have A standard plot size of: 300m2 (20m x 15m) , in Kigali, where the property tax is around $0.20 p/m2. The plot tax is = 300m2 x $0.20= $60 p/y = $5 per month Let’s say you have an average house worth $80.000, you would be paying building tax of $80.000 X 0.75% = $600 per year = $50 per month in 2021 and $80.000 X 1% = $800 per year = $67 per month in 2022 Assuming that the value of your house stays the same The property taxes laws are up for revision soon. When they do, make sure to be subscribed to this channel and hit this bell to be notified when I upload any new video. Until then, this applies to everyone who buys and or builds a house now. Thank you for hanging in there. Let me share about My house I have a rental house in a neighborhood called Nyarutarama. It’s quiet, extra safe and beautiful. And very expensive because of many companies that are in the neighborhood. I live in a compound with 3 other houses. Which is nice and cozy and I don’t have a big garden or anything. Although Nyarutarama is one of the most expensive neighborhoods here in Rwanda, it’s not why I picked it. I picked because one: it's close to my business: two: it's close to business and three: it's affordable. The downside is that it’s mostly gates, no boutiques and lots of institutions, schools and hotels around me. Which can feel a bit boring. Depending on who I ask, I have been told that this house is very expensive or very cheap. For me it was just right, because that was all I could afford my start-up. My amenities: Rent: 150$ Electricity 7k Water 2.5k Cooking gas 13k. I use it for 3 months, so it's around 4k per month. Community Security: 2k Garbage: 1.7 WiFi: 28k Per month it's around $200 for the fixed amenities. In the next videos I will talk about the cost transportation and food here in Rwanda Support me on Patreon for as low as a cappuccino, and ask me any question that I will answer in the next videos. Give this video 300 likes, and I will do a Live Q&A to answer your questions. Stay tuned, Stay subscribed, Stay Fit Thank you for reading. Muramuke!