The return on investment for real estate is very low at the moment with a lot of vacant homes and commercial buildings in Harare CBD. The international average return of investment of 10% per annum is difficult to reach for many due Covid-19.

One of the questions our forum tackled over the past few weeks was whether in Zimbabwe mansions are assets? If you fail to complete the mansion then it’s a total waste of resources as those with funds to buy mansions generally to prefer to build own homes.

A look at most of the wealthy Zimbabweans shows that they all live in homes they would have built! Few are buying incomplete mansions, complete them and move in,

Mansions are also difficult to rent out—few tenants are interested in renting +8 bedroomed homes as they also come with the extra burden of maintenance costs.

If you are thinking of building a mansion, then consider alternative uses for commercial purposes such as converting them into hotel and lodges, schools, colleges or offices. A lot of mansions for sale have been on the market for long with some risking being on the market for decades.

In the current environment, a mansion is a liability unless you are staying in it. In future banks may even refuse surety of mansions as they may not find buyers!

For rentals in the leafy suburbs of Harare, the cap is normally $3,000 per month for properties in areas such as Mt Pleasant, Avondale, Milton Park, Borrowdale, Chisipite and Highlands. The biggest spenders are diplomats and NGO expats who prefer living close to schools and other amenities. These areas also house many embassies and headquarters of NGOs and financial institutions. If you are considering investing in a rental property—this is the prime location for high returns provided the property is well maintained and also having good security.

High density areas have few vacant houses but rental income returns have nosedived from a high of US$400 per 7 roomed house in 2014 to US$200 in areas such as Warren Park, Kuwadzana, Kambuzuma and Glenview.

Student Accommodation

Sometime last year Prof Murwira mentioned on StarFm that the country had a student accommodation of deficit of more than 150,000! This includes all colleges such as UZ, NUST, MSU, CUT, BUSE and others. Investment in accommodation require huge capital outlays with low and relatively stable returns. However Zimbabwean investors do not have much patience as most prefer investing funds today, spin it around and getting +300% profit in a few days.

Therefore the student accommodation housing backlog is going to be a permanent problem and to those interested in this area—do a mapping exercise of all the colleges in the country and also include high schools as there is a rise in demand for boarding houses.

So as we feed the internet with everything, what are the implications?

The internet ends up projecting our every move and sometimes with inch perfect precision.

1. DSTV Account: It knows when dad is around right due to sports or news channels? It also knows when kids are around by the movie channels they tune to. It knows the dad of the house is away from home when he misses 3 crucial matches featuring his favourite teams.
2. Tollgates: They know when you pass through certain tollgates, who you will be travelling with and also know your average travelling speed. They can predict your next likely tollgate pass given your history over the past few years.
3. Bank Card: Ichi chikwapuro—it knows amounts in, out, times, places—whether you are likely to be involved in illicit deals. The bank card helps track your health status—why are drugs featuring prominently? Do we have pregnancy in the home? Lol The bank card can help predict where you are likely to be say on Xmas Day in 2021.
4. Ecocash: Just like the bank card above, helps track transactions and predict future movements, inflows and outflows etc
5. Your Computer or phone IP Address: Helps track your online activity—all sites you are visiting, for how long, unusual activity, all new email addresses you have opened etc
6. Your Whatsapp Account: Perhaps the best information it gives out is what is on your mind–your status updates! Your safe space for venting—so it can track your thoughts—timing and regularity.
7. Your other social media accounts: They help track  everything about you including your inbox messages, deleted messages, contacts and more.
8. Dashcam: At a certain financial organisation, top managers refused dash cameras coz it meant tracking evidence when they go to small houses lol
9. Edgars and Clicks Cards: Helps track your shopping habits, what you buy, when, how—even amount of time you spend in a shop, the colours and other specifications of what you buy. The card already knows what you are likely to buy during winter and the amount you will spent.
10. Your Passport: Although not fully computerised but each time you exit the border, the scanner captures your details—together with the air ticket, may help track where you are headed, how long you will take before returning etc. The passport can be used to predict your future movements.

More gadgets coming: There are more gadgets coming that will add more data about you to the digital platform—workplace keys or cards, scanners, vehicles and more. The computer simply wants more information about you—it is not satisfied by the current data we are uploading.

Can you fake the digital capture?: No you cannot, if you go offline now—your history will sell you out, why the change? Why is your home the only one with no pay per view channel subscription out of 3000 homes? Why are all mercs using swipe cards at tollgates but yours the only one paying cash?

In the past, your passport was stamped out 4 times a month, why none for the past 3 years? You are border jumping?

Positive Impact: Helps process large swathes of data faster—remember computers are technically faster than human beings. So computers are summarising data in record times for us, this allows faster decision making as we have accurate data on our fingure tips,

Positive Impact: Helps us predict the future better. When we talk about the future, there is an element of guess work—but if we use a lot of past data, study patterns—then its going to enable us to come up with near perfect predictions.

Negative Impact: If you are ethical, no need to worry about digital footprints but if your information falls into the wrong hands such as scammers then it can be disastrous.

As a rule, assume everything you do on the internet is being watched by good cops as well as bad cops.

For finance professionals, getting Big Data certifications crucially important as this has an impact on decision making and cyber security as well. Not many professionals on the topic in Zimbabwe so you have to rely on professional accounting bodies CPDs for now.

For entrepreneurs, this area provides tonnes of opportunities as well as risks—read widely about the topic with a focus on unlocking opportunities and minimizing risks.