Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister Judith NabakoobaUganda must ensure new housing is climate-resilient, energy-efficient, durable and properly serviced as the country races to address a housing deficit of about 2.48 million units, Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister Judith Nabakooba has said.Nabakooba said Uganda cannot afford to respond to the crisis by simply putting up more houses without considering rising risks from floods, droughts and landslides.“Affordable housing must not mean poor quality housing. It must be safe, durable, healthy, serviced, but also dignified,” she said.She was speaking at Uganda’s National Housing Dialogue organised by Habitat for Humanity Uganda on Monday, October 5, as the country marked World Habitat Day 2026 and World Architecture Day.About 60 percent of Ugandans are estimated to live in informal settlements or inadequate housing, while the country produces only about 50,000 units annually — far below what is needed to close the gap.“If we go at the pace of 50,000 housing units, it may take ages for us to narrow the gap,” Nabakooba said.The minister challenged government, private developers, financial institutions and development partners to rethink not only how many houses are built, but what kind of houses and where they are located.“The question before us is therefore not simply how do we build more housing. It is, how do we build the right housing?” she said.Nabakooba said climate change must be factored into housing design and physical planning, as poorly planned settlements become increasingly exposed to floods and landslides. She linked the housing challenge to weaknesses in physical planning and land-use management, saying unplanned development is fueling urban sprawl, informal settlements and rising infrastructure costs.She said Uganda must embrace better planned and more compact urban development, including densification, to make efficient use of expensive land and reduce the cost of roads, water, sanitation and other services.Uganda already has policies to guide land use and physical development, including the National Land Policy and National Physical Development Plan, while work is ongoing on the National Land Use Plan. But Nabakooba admitted policies will have little impact unless they are felt on the ground.“What we are saying is that government, we have done some laws and policies, but now we need to see them being felt on the ground,” she said.The crisis is most acute for low-income households, young people entering the workforce, women and those in the informal economy. High construction costs, expensive land, limited access to affordable housing finance and insecure land tenure are making it difficult for many to move from renting or informal housing to home ownership.She noted that rising land prices are no longer restricted to major urban centres, with rural communities also experiencing increases.Nabakooba said government is engaging the Ministry of Finance and financial institutions on low-cost, long-term housing finance, noting that conventional mortgages are often inaccessible to young people due to high interest rates, short repayment periods and collateral requirements.“How do we make them more affordable for young people?” she asked.Habitat for Humanity Uganda Board Chairman Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa said the country already understands the scale of the problem and must now focus on practical solutions.“Today I want us to move to the how. Practical how,” he said, citing the example of a young Ugandan who saves Shs12 million to buy a 50-by-100-foot plot but cannot raise money to build a house.Nsibirwa warned against turning the National Housing Dialogue into an annual talk-shop without measurable action. He proposed quarterly, issue-based meetings focusing on challenges such as housing finance for youth aged 18 to 35 and affordable construction technologies, plus an online platform to share policies, research and innovations.Habitat for Humanity Uganda National Director Paul Okiring said housing should not be treated solely as a social-sector concern because it is linked to the economy, health, education and climate resilience.During the dialogue, Habitat displayed what Okiring described as “silent walls” to represent conditions in which millions of Ugandans live.“These silent walls are speaking,” he said, pointing to settlements such as Kamokya and Katanga in Kampala.Okiring said estimates presented at the dialogue show as many as 96 percent of Ugandans cannot afford an average formally constructed house. He called for greater use of housing microfinance, cooperatives, savings groups and incremental housing loans that allow families to build gradually.He also identified land tenure as a major obstacle, calling for faster registration and titling, digitisation of land administration, stronger protection of women’s land rights and regularisation of tenure in informal settlements. He proposed strategic land banks and greater investment in serviced land around rapidly growing urban centres.Program Director Evelyn Frances Aguti said the people behind the housing statistics should not be forgotten.“Once you are homeless, then you are powerless,” she said.Habitat for Humanity Uganda, which began operating in Uganda in 1982, says it has constructed more than 4,000 homes, mostly in rural communities, using beneficiary labour and technologies such as interlocking soil-stabilised blocks to reduce costs.Okiring said the organisation’s 2026–2028 strategy is built around three pillars: building more and better homes, transforming housing systems to make finance more accessible, and mobilising communities and stakeholders to take action.-URNThe post 96% of Ugandans Can’t Afford Decent Homes as Housing Deficit Hits 2.48m appeared first on Business Focus.