BUDIRIRO - DESPITE RECENT SKIRMISHES WITH THE POLICE IT REMAINS A GOOD PLACE FOR PROPERTY INVESTING

HOLY WAR ! - courtesy of The Zimbabwe Mail

 

 Indeed, Budiriro has dominated  the headlines for wrong reasons in recent weeks and the latest being the attack on the police by members of the Johani  Masowe  WeChishanu  Apostolic sect.  But for landlords this never was a source of headache because their  property values remained at a maximum of +- $45 000.00 a price that was before the infamous jihad – holy war. The property market is not easily susceptible to negative publicity as other markets like that of stock. So Budiriro remains a very good place to invest money and has the following  notable real estate attributes.

VALUE  APPRECIATION

For an investment to appreciate in value there should be a value to appreciate in the first place. This  is were concepts like value addition and creation comes into play. A piece of real estate is value added through such elements like installation of water and sewer systems;  paving of roads; social amenities etc. Furthermore,  these elements should be installed in a way that is in line with standard practice not the half hearted approach that we witness  in some places. The point therefore is a lot of special effort  should be expended by developers and investors in order to create value in real estate.  In Budiriro the developers then,  made these special efforts and they created value in the suburb. Leveraging upon better economic times in the early 90s developers installed quality land development elements and social infrastructure. Despite the economic subsidence of the new millennium  Budiriro’s town planning is still fetching good market values and  is foundation for value appreciation.

QUALITY URBAN PLANNING

Having mentioned about good land servicing above, the good state of these installations should not go unnoticed. Budiriro as a high density area is serviced by a water borne sewer system together with a fresh water sanitary  network. Irrespective of the fact that these are struggling to serve an increasing  population  the critical role they play in ensuring  delivery of fresh  water and efficient disposal of waste can  not  be underestimated.  Comparatively, this is ahead of economic power houses like South Africa where the bucket toilets are still being  used . The implementation of standard practices in Budiriro that involved services like land surveying was also very vital. Surveying land is an integral requirement for title deeds that in turn are also integral in the provision of credit as collateral .

SOCIAL  AMENITIES

Cost of change as one move to Budiriro wont be high because of social amenities like shops; pre- , primary and secondary schools; recreational facilities; clinics etc. With the help of investors like the Local Authority Pension Fund  (LAPF)   the developer was able to create such facilities like its OK shopping  mall one of the social amenities meant to ensure that residents can have a comfortable life in the suburb.  Over and above the purchase price there are invisible costs that buyers may not readily see when buying the dream home. An example of such a cost is a situation when one has to continue taking her kids to schools in places they used to stay because there are no such school in the new areas. This also translates  to things like recreational and health facilities. This kind of cost can also be viewed as inconvenience .  To this end Budiriro has  five primary schools, two secondary schools, several private pre-schools, five shopping centers, two public clinics and these are evenly distributed across the suburb.