Uganda’s richest man and biggest landlord, Sudhir Ruparelia (pictured above) has revealed that the future of real estate sector looks bright as oil production nears.
Asked about his view on the year 2019 for the property sector, Sudhir said it was quite a challenging year.
“It has been a slow year and a difficult one; you know economies all over the world are slowing down and Uganda isn’t an exception, so try to bite only what you can chew. Don’t put a very big piece of meat and you choke. This means that just manage to grow what you can afford to grow,” the property mogul said.
He made the remarks at the sidelines of the launch of Shopping Union Supermarket at Kingdom Kampala Mall on Friday.
Asked about his 2020 outlook for the real estate sector, Sudhir said unless Uganda finalizes final investment decisions in the oil sector, the situation will remain the same.
“Once oil production agreements are signed, we shall start climbing up,” he said.
Although it has been a difficult year as described by Sudhir, the tycoon’s Ruparelia Group completed a number of multi-billion buildings in Kampala.
For example, in May this year the Group opened Shs1.2 trillion Kingdom Kampala Mall. This was followed by the official launch of fancy Speke Apartments located in Kitante, a Kampala suburb.
Additionally, in September, Ruparelia Group officially launched Shs36bn Electrical Plaza that is located in Nakasero.
In a 2016 interview, Sudhir revealed that he had “more than 300 titles [of land] in my closet and still counting.”
For example, he said, he had more than 14 buildings along Kampala Road alone.
This has since grown considering the fact that he has been opening more new buildings in Kampala and the surrounding areas.
In 2016, he valued his titles at around US$1bn (roughly Shs3.7trillion) excluding the now defunct Crane Bank that was controversially taken over by the Bank of Uganda and later sold.
