Assessing the impact of Covid 19 pandemic on investment in commercial real estate in Kampala.

Abstract

The study focused on assessing the impact of covid 19 pandemic on investment in commercial real estate in Ntinda, Kampal district. The health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world since the beginning of 2020, changing living and working conditions. The pandemic has generated a crisis that is having and will continue to have consequences on all sectors of the economy, including the commercial real estate sector. The government instituted multiple measure such as social distancing, travel restrictions, quarantines and many more as the new vocabularies of the entire country and this have affected investment into commercial real estate. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative approaches that allowed the collection of the detailed information from the respondents. The data was collected using questionnaires where by the researcher had to go to the field and collect the data basing on the responses from the target respondents (property owners/managers, real estate agents and tenants). This was used to explain and evaluate the study situation the researcher went through. A sample of 76 respondents was selected and a total of 60 respondents manged to respond from different villages of Ntinda. The major instruments for collecting data were questionnaires and interview. The data was coded, edited and analysed using both statistical and non-statistical methods. The researcher used frequencies and percentages as unit’s measurement in data analysis and presentation. The findings show that majority of the respondents agreed that Covid-19 pandemic has increased vacancy rates with 30(50%) due to remote working and low profits raised by tenants. It was concluded that COVID-19 pandemic had exerted a huge negative impact on occupancy rates. On average, the researcher obtained an estimate from responses that occupancy rates in Ntinda decline by 20% in past two years.