DTB launches home loans as housing shortage grows

A Ugandan commercial bank has launched a mortgage scheme aimed at helping more people buy homes, in a country where an estimated 2.4 million homes are needed.

Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) Uganda said it would lend to property developers building housing estates, and would also offer home loans to individual buyers and to employers wanting to help their staff onto the property ladder.

The bank announced the scheme on Wednesday at Emerald Residency, a housing development in the Mutungo area of the capital, Kampala.

Uganda’s housing shortage has been driven by one of the fastest urbanisation rates in East Africa. The country needs between 210,000 and 300,000 new homes each year, and the shortfall is projected to approach three million by 2030.

Most Ugandan families build their homes slowly, room by room, over many years, because long-term borrowing is hard to come by. Of the country’s registered banks, only a minority offer mortgages at all, and rates have typically run well above 15%.

A pathway to own homes

Godfrey Ssebaana, DTB Uganda’s managing director, said housing was the foundation of financial security.

“Through structured mortgage financing, we are committed to empowering developers to build with confidence while creating a pathway for individuals and corporate employees to own homes,” he said.

The bank did not say what interest rates it would charge, how long its loans would run, or how much it planned to lend.

Uganda’s minister for lands, housing and urban development, Judith Nabakooba, who attended the launch, said meeting the country’s housing needs would require governments, banks and developers to work together.

“Uganda’s rapidly urbanising population presents both a challenge and an opportunity,” she said.

Wider push

DTB is not the first Ugandan lender to move into the market. Rival banks have introduced their own mortgage products in recent years, and parliament passed a law in 2025 intended to channel long-term money into housing finance and bring borrowing costs down.

Analysts have questioned how much difference such measures will make while lending rates remain high and household incomes low. Under Uganda’s national housing policy, a home is considered affordable if a family spends no more than 30% of its monthly income on it — a threshold most households already exceed.

DTB Uganda is part of the Diamond Trust Bank Group, which is a member of the Aga Khan Development Network and operates in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It has 36 branches in Uganda.