Millions of dollars are lost every year by first time buyers of residential stands! In the category of those who lose resources are medical doctors, accountants, engineers, teachers, diasporans, lawyers and others.

You cannot even trust real estate agents 100% as some have been de-registered for malpractices by the Real Estate Council.

You cannot trust relatives and friends either as this category is the highest risk!

Title deeds verifications? A lot of people have lost funds after visiting the deeds office with their lawyers. A friend of mine did visit the offices with a lawyer but still lost funds when he wanted to buy his first residential stand in Marlborough in 2006.

Number 1 Redflag: Just avoid stands in built up areas. A residential stand in Mt Pleasant, Braeside, Sentosa, Greencroft, Warren Park etc. Why is it still vacant decades later when others completed their homes or got structures with tenants? These infil stands have all the papers in order but disaster unfolds when you deliver bricks to the stand site –the owner of the place suddenly emerges and produces authentic deeds. My estimate is more than US$10 million was lost this way from 2000-2020 in Harare alone.

Kungowona pakanzi INFILL Stand, run with your money.

So how do you ensure your funds are safe and the stand you are buying is bonafide?

Golden Rule: Deal with companies with huge balance sheets. If a company has US$500m in its books, its unlikely to disappear with a residential stand worth $200k. It just doesnt make sense!

To prove this; No local bank has been taken to the courts accused of selling fraudulent stands. Noone has taken CABS/Old Mutual, FBC, Steward Bank or Fidelity Insurance.

However a lot of individuals have been taken to court with some on the run. Most have nothing to lose and disappear as soon as thy get funds in their hands.

Yes its expensive to buy from reputable financial houses but you are 100% guaranteed of genuine properties and related documents.

The world has 7, 3 billion people with Africa having +1,3 billion citizens and a fast growing young population. Nigeria has 200million citizens, South Africa at 56 million and where does Zim stand? Just 16 million, so a small country and small population.

What is it that we do that over 7 billion people across the globe pause and gives us a thumps up?

1. Arts and Crafts(Mbira): Noone beats us when it comes to our Mbira Sound—Absolutely no one across the globe! Sadly we are sitting on this golden gem and one day we will wake up with most of our traditional folklore songs copy righted. How many Mbira instrumentals are for sale on Youtube? How many Mbira tutorials for sale by Zimbos? How many Mbira books for sale on Amazon? How many Mbira instrumentals featured on major films? At major musical festivals across the globe—they don’t invite our Zimdancehall artists—they strictly invite Zimbo sounds with a Mbira touch.
2. Arts and Crafts(Stone Sculptures): The Atlanta Airport in USA has a long walkway full of Zimbo stone art! The African Museum in Capetown has 3 floors full of African art but a whole floor is dedicated to Zim art with the rest reserved for more than 53 countries.  Our stone art traced to Great Zimbabwe Ruins, Khami Ruins and other historical areas made of stone

We used to be top of the totem pole when it comes to literacy across the continent but other countries are fast catching up and rankings of African colleges do not show favourable results for Zimbabwe. Our English accent still good but over the past decades, many have closed the gap.

So there is no any other area where Zimbabwe comes tops in the world apart from the above 2 areas. Therefore our focus as a country should be to innovate, invest and support the above 2 areas.