Sunday, June 3, 2012

Buying, building a house: a farfetched dream ? Ethiopian News ...

In early times, possessing fixed assets like a house and land used to be considered as something doable but nowadays the idea of being able to own a house seems to be a wild goose chase. This is due to the sky-rocketing price of houses, writes Meirafe Berhane.

?Because of silly reasons house rent is increasing every two to three months. That means we have to change our plans every time the landlord wants more. He asks us six months? advanced payment. This is actually unbearable. I listed my priorities in two columns and tried to see the difference between my basic costs and my goals. What I have noticed is that they are not balancing. And going back to school is way down on the list,? 28-year-old newlywed woman who works as a project sector office manager says.

The young lady earns more than six thousand birr a month; however, let alone buying a house she and her husband have decided to minimize some costs. Eating out is out of the question in order to live without stress.

?I want to buy a car and own a house some day. But it is a wild goose chase. I have to work extra hard or consider a part-time job. I sometimes think that in order to live by what we earn considering renting a much cheaper house is better hoping to have a better tomorrow. The confused young woman tells The Reporter that she still wants to live happily today and not move to a cheaper dwelling.

She has often heard of people saying that they have possessions but it is almost like a fairy tale to think about having such possessions and says that to own a house she either has to marry a rich man or work for solid 22 hours a day in the US for years. She went on to explain that corruption might also work.

?I know that owning a house is not as easy as baking a pancake,? the desperate and frustrated young woman says.

True to form, owning a house these days is not as easy as it was some thirty years ago and back then the size of the plot that people owned was also considerable.

67-year-old Teklay Kiflu, retired, says that he has his own house on a 1000 sq.m plot. That?s where he raised his nine children. Teklay used to own a 2000 sq.m. plot in Mekanissa, which he sold to a diaspora daughter in-law?s aunt some 15 years ago.

Buying, building a house: a farfetched dream ?I have sold that land just because I had to send four of my children abroad. If it was not for that land, my children would not be able to be in the position that they are now. Thanks to God all of them are successful and professionals now,? he says. Teklay never had the intention to sell his house and he has decided to pass it on to his children. He believes that his house is something that he earned in life and he understands the difficulty of owning a house.

?I started leaving by myself some seven years ago. After I obtained my degree in Industrial Engineering, I went to Dire Dawa to work and I was getting paid about 1400 birr per month. At that time I was paying a hundred birr per month for a single room. After two years of working there I moved to Nazareth and I was getting around 2500 birr per month and I was paying 300 birr every month for a single room. Then after I have worked for six months in Nazareth I moved back to Addis with a 3000-birr-salary and I started paying 650 birr per month for a house. Since then I have worked in companies with my salary increasing from 3,000 5,000 7,000 to 10,000. Now I am getting 12,000 birr per month. I am currently paying 2,000 birr for rent,? a 31-year-old young professional, who would like to remain anonymous, says.

As it is beyond his current financial status for him, it is unpredictable whether he is going to be able to buy or build a house, especially in Addis Ababa. ?But I am thinking of buying land within the next three or four years out of Addis Ababa,? he says.

A 30-years-old mechanical engineer who would like to remain anonymous, does not have a plan to buy or build a house. He had the opportunity to visit one of Scandinavian countries and all that he is thinking of having a house is the same to what he experienced there.

?To have a modern and simple way of living we need to come up with ideas such as a common parking lot or a laundry room and also community based waste management. A lot of things could be done by the community that should also be handled by the community. If the community gets organized there is no need to have a garage. I really envy how people live there. What I saw is that you don't need a personal gym. It really isn't about the size. It really isn't about how many bedrooms your house has. It should rather be about fulfillment of life. A person can live in a one-bedroom apartment. That house has a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room and a small store. When that person wants to wash his clothes he goes to the common laundry room where all the tenants have access to wash their clothes according to their booking schedule. There is a separate parking lot for all tenants of the apartment,? says the engineer who explained what he saw as how a middle income earner can afford a house.

The young person thinks that there is huge attachment in our society to property. He says that in Scandinavian countries he knows that people can live with rent in a small apartment for as long as they are happy with what they have. He went on explaining that it really doesn't matter whether a person buys a big villa or waits every month to empty their pocket for the rent. He suggested that sticking on the idea of having a land or a house can be considered as crying over spilt milk.

If a person earns10, 000 birr a month, after tax, and saves 5,000 birr every month for executive five years, the person would be able to save 300,000 birr. And that is the current minimum price of a house in a real estate-owned apartment. The minimum current price for a two-bedroom condominium with 62 sq. meter. costs 240,000birr plus 90,000 birr debt owed to the government which totals 330,000 birr. Yet, a person still needs to save 5,000 birr a month for five years to buy a house in condominium with that amount.

Different schemes such as mortgages and real estate options are believed to provide the middle income earner a house. And the flourishing real estate business in the country like never before is believed that it gives hope for a person with average income that one day he/she might be able to afford their own house. Real estates are believed they make owning a house easy for a buyer through their options that could have been impossible to achieve by saving money for a long period of time. Yet, person must save more than 300,000 birr to afford a small house.

Seven years ago, prices of some construction materials on the market were at least four times less than the current market price. A single sack of cement that consists of 50 kilograms used to cost 30 birr which currently costs 155 birr (this price was set only just a month ago and in the previous periods 50 kilo of cement was 400 birr), a kilo of steel that is used to erect house beams and foundation used to cost 15 birr which currently costs 27 birr. A foreman?s salary used to be 800 birr while eight birr was a daily wage for a daily laborer while the current salary of a foreman is more than 7000 birr and a daily laborer gets about 40 birr. Eight cubic meters of stone used to cost 300 birr while the same volume of stone currently costs 1,300 birr. A volume of 17 cubic meters of sand used to cost 1,200 birr while the current price for the same volume of sand is 7000 birr. A single block with good quality used to cost up to four birr while current average price of it is five to eight birr.

Source: thereporterethiopia

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