Property Management or Affordable Housing

 I probably could go 2 ways with this post.

One would be to say how a developing country like Botswana has something to tell a 1st world country like Canada about affordable housing and a few other things to boot!

The other is to explain our housing situation.

This picture shows Binnie's original house, now referred to as the "Cottage", with a corner of our new house to the left.  Our Camry on the left, the tenant's BMW on the right.

To repeat the tale, after finishing nursing school and before a certain Canadian asked her if she wanted to come to Canada (!), Binnie wisely got a plot of land from the Land Board.  Subsequently, she build a modest bungalow in it.  To serve as her base of operations.

Move forward to the mid 2000's and she came over and build the new house.

As the construction was finishing she got the builders and painters to "spruce up" the cottage.  New bathroom, new kitchen, tile flooring throughout and new paint job.  Really the only thing missing was a new front door and windows.

At this point in time she located a property manager in Gaborone to take the cottage on as part of her inventory.

Kate is Zambian and married to a Swiss gentlemen.

Thus she looks after maintenance, finances and complaints,, etc.  Through social media she and Binnie can, if need be, communicate daily.

For the most part everything sees to run smoothly.

So right now we have a young family staying in the cottage.  The husband works and commutes into Gaborone weekdays.  Mom is a housewife and there is a young girl and boy both in primary school.

And also 2 large dogs.  One is a South African mastiff; a " boerboel". 

"Ownership of the dog is limited by law in many countries.  Used as a family guard dog. It is large, with a short coat, strong bone structure and well-developed muscles."

Needless to say , she has her pluses and minuses.  On the negative side, she scares the heck out of us and is tied up during the day.  At night she is let loose and provides "security".

Anyway, back to the theme.

The "cottage" is rented out at 1,600 pula a month.  ($160).  This is below the going market rate but we simply wanted someone living in the compound and keeping an eye on the empty house.

So far, this appears to have worked out well, and the tenants are on a 24 month lease.  Stability.

Kate charges us 1,600 pula a year for her services.  Pretty decent compared to Canada I would say.

Thus we end up with 11 x 1,600 pula a year in rent which I believe works out to 17,600 pula.

Our only expenses from that sum is for water and any maintenance Kate deems necessary.

Therefore, the bulk of this revenue is available to keep upgrading our house.

Additional furniture, A/C, outdoor circular clothes dryer, etc.

Finally, to circle back to the beginning.  Our property has 2 houses on it.  Mma Binnie has a total of 3 dwelling units and everyone else in the village seems to have at least 2 dwelling units on their property.

Thus a lot of "affordable" housing for property owners and renters and the ability for new property owners to supplement the income of their new house/property.

More to be said on that in a future post.