Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is the advantage of buying from a real estate developer?

•  It costs lower than building it your self because real-estate development buy construction materials in very large quantity, and they get it at much lower price.

•  The cost of the land is lower than buying for individual houses because real estate developer can negotiate better price for a large piece of land.

•  Infrastructure development, i.e. water, electricity, telephone and road costs lower and have less hassle than processing and supplying for one house. There are several evidences of houses built, even by small groups, who couldn't get water and electricity for years after the house is complete.

•  If bank mortgage is incurred by the individual to build a house,

•  The interest will start accruing even before the house is complete. Where as for a house purchased with credit with real estate developer, the interest will only accrue after the owner receives the house.

•  The duration of the loan with a bank is 16 or 20 years maximum, and with Ayat it's up to 30 years.

•  Since the duration of the loan is short with a bank that means the monthly payment is higher than it would be with Ayat.

Q2. The first registrants have not yet received their homes. Why is that?

The first round of registration, Ayat registered over 1300 interested customers. The agreement with A.A. administration was that as soon as Ayat starts building the houses the respective government authorities were to start building the infrastructure such as road, water, electricity and telephone lines. Ayat started building the houses as soon as it could (which took two years to finish government processes and receive the land) and started urging infrastructure developing government authorities to start work. Needless to say, with the exception of electricity lines all were very slow to start or to proceed once started. As the house of Representatives said on TV recently, Ayat's development has not been given enough attention and assistance from the government as it shoud.

For example, Ayat built about 500 homes in the first segment of development we call Zone 1, and almost all were ready to handover to owners over two years ago. But the fact that the water supply to each house was not connected until September 2001 the owners could not receive their homes. That means 500 people of the first round registrars, except few, were waiting for water supply before receiving their houses.

That being the main reason for the delay the other reason is several of our customers changed their mind and moved to bigger lots or corner lots with view, much later after registration. Some of the first registrants are still changing their plots to this day for various reasons, leaving an almost complete home for an empty lot and their houses are still under construction.

Q3. Black cotton soil is not the best soil for construction. How can I be sure the houses at Ayat will not have structural problems?

The best structural engineer in Ethiopia , who is also THE expert in black cotton soil, Engineer Girma Tessema, has designed the structural design of the houses Ayat is building. The founders of Ayat made sure the houses we build are reliable for years to come. After all, we give these houses on credit for thirty years! There was no compromising on the structural reliability of these houses when we started building and there isn't any right now. The finished houses can testify for this fact very clearly. Some of our houses have been there for almost three years and they can be scrutinized by anyone in this profession for the satisfaction of our customers. We are confident that they do not have structural problems.

Ayat has empty lots, houses that are at finishing stages, and at various stages in between. Depending on the desire and spending capacity of the customer the house can be complete from six moths to two years time.

There are several advantages to mention some:

•  Insurance guarantee on all your cash investment. If our company can not carry out its obligations the insurance will give you back your money.

•  Up to 30 years mortgage. This is the longest mortgage given by any institution in Ethiopia (Please see # 1d. for additional advantages regarding a loan with Ayat)

•  Cash buyers advantage, such as receiving their house before credit buyers and getting priority to get their Title and Deed.

•  Group discount, i.e.,

•  for group of 14 to 20 buyers, 4% discount

•  for group of 21 to 50 buyers, 4.5% discount is given

•  Foreign currency purchase discount. In order to encourage Ethiopians who live overseas to come back to their country as well as to help our country get the much needed foreign currency inflow, Ayat is doing its part by giving 3% discount on payments made through our foreign account at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia .

•  One year guarantee on construction defects (if a newly built house has any construction defect it will show signs of the problem within one year time).

•  Opportunity to build custom made homes. You can bring us any design and we will build it for you.

•  The best variety and quality of houses. Our houses range in size from 60m2 up to 300 for basic homes, all the way to luxury homes. We have something for most budgets.