The Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA) of Tanzania has recently approved the Watumishi Housing Company Real Estate Investment Trust (WHC-REIT), with an initial founding of TZS 68 billion.
WHC-REIT was created to help filling the gap for public servants’ housing, for which demand is strong in Tanzania.
As such WHC-REIT is the first real investment trust in East Africa to mobilise resources for construction of houses for low and medium income earners, according to its CEO and fund manger Dr Fred Msemwa.
Until now WHC-REIT was currently owned by shareholders of Watumishi Housing Company (WHC) and hence they was not tradable at the Dar-Es-salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).
By trading at DSE where the general public will be able to invest in REIT by buying and selling units in the same manner they can buy and shares.
The real estate unit trust expected to grow gradually to TZS 358 billion in the next five years.
