This article is part of our Diaspora series. It is the third instalment. In the previous instalments, we looked at the options that are available to you if you are living in the diaspora when it comes to building or buying a home. You can choose to build or buy a home in your country of residency, buy or build a home in urban Zimbabwe or go the old-school route by building a rural home first. Each one of these options has its pros and cons.
The purpose of this article is to look at the advantages and drawbacks of building or buying a house back in one of Zimbabwe’s urban areas while you are still living in your new country of residency. Of course, if you can afford it, you can always build or buy houses in each of these locations but most people do not have that kind of money, hence the purpose of these articles.
Most Zimbabweans who are in the Diaspora spent their childhood in one of Zimbabwe’s many suburbs and this is the life they are used to. I find that those who grew up in towns and cities have a hard time adjusting when it comes to moving to rural areas. The inability to adjust is even more pronounced when you have lived abroad. So I would strongly encourage anyone who is in the diaspora to prioritise getting a house in urban Zimbabwe first if for some reason they are unable or don’t want to stay in their new adopted country.
The advantages of getting a house in urban Zimbabwe
Again there are probably more advantages to building back home in Zimbabwe but the aim of this article was never to provide you with an exhaustive list. I rather wanted you to know how to get started on the process. Now what could be the drawbacks: