Reall has worked in Uganda since 2014, in partnership with Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) and Smart Havens.

Uganda faces a pressing housing challenge, with the country’s housing deficit estimated at over 2.4 million units and continuing to grow by 200,000 units annually.  With rapid urbanisation, the majority of new urban residents end up in informal settlements, often without access to adequate services such as clean water, sanitation, and electricity. Despite growing demand, high land costs, limited access to affordable finance, and weak regulatory frameworks make the delivery of decent, affordable housing difficult for lower-income Ugandans.

In 2016, Reall partnered with UCA to establish Enterprise Housing Development Uganda (EHDU), aimed at delivering affordable housing to low-income urban households. Their first venture, the Gwengabara project in Lira, delivered four one-bedroom homes alongside 33 serviced plots with freehold titles and access to roads, water, and mains electricity.

In 2020, Reall entered into a partnership with Smart Havens Africa, a social enterprise delivering climate-smart homes for low-income and female-headed households in Uganda, with a focus on providing legal land ownership, essential services, and employment opportunities for women. Using compressed stabilized earth bricks, their modular homes significantly reduce embodied carbon by approximately 30%. To date, the projects in Kampala (Bukalango and ) have delivered 40+ homes, offering resilient, green housing to underserved populations.

Reall’s work in Uganda shows that combining gender-inclusive, climate-smart housing and cooperative-led developments can effectively start to bridge the housing gap to deliver affordable and resilient homes for underserved communities.