PROPERTY GROUP
Diaspora Investment Explorer
What does your money actually buy back home?
Tell us what you have, where you are looking and what you want from it. We will show you what that buys in Borama, Hargeisa and Burco, what it earns in a year, how long before you have your money back, and how much risk sits underneath it. Nothing here is a sales pitch. Some of the answers are deliberately unflattering.
1 Your capital
The amount you are ready to commit, not your total savings.
Why we ask. Every option below has a real entry point. A rental compound cannot be started with $8,000 and a solar block cannot be built for $4,000. Your figure decides which doors are genuinely open to you rather than which ones sound good.
How it is used. We convert your amount to US dollars, because land, materials and labour in Somaliland are all priced in dollars. Every cost you see is then converted back into your currency for display. Your figure is never sent anywhere until you press WhatsApp or save.
2 Where you are looking
City choice changes the price of everything, not just the land.
Why we ask. The same $30,000 behaves completely differently in each city. Hargeisa has the highest prices and the deepest tenant demand. Borama is cheaper with strong diaspora inflow and real room to grow. Burco is the cheapest entry and the thinnest resale market, which is a genuine trade-off, not a bargain.
How it is used. Your city sets the plot price, the build cost, the achievable rent, the government and notary fees, and the growth rate we apply over ten years. Pick "Compare all three" if you have no attachment to one place and want the numbers to decide.
3 Land you already own
Many diaspora families already hold a plot. It changes the answer completely.
Why we ask. Land is usually the largest single line in any of these projects. If you already own a suitable plot, your capital goes into the part that earns money instead of the part that just sits there. That often moves an option from out of reach to comfortably affordable.
How it is used. If you say yes, we remove the land purchase and its fees from every build option and count your plot as an asset you already hold. We do not add its value to your invested capital, so your return percentages stay honest.
4 What you want out of it
Income and growth are not the same investment. Most people ask for both and then get disappointed by one of them.
Why we ask. Land banking pays you nothing every month and can double over seven to eight years. Shop units pay you every month and grow slowly. If you tell us you want monthly income and we hand you bare land, we have wasted your time.
How it is used. Your goal sets how we rank the options. Income ranking favours yield and a short payback. Growth ranking favours the ten year position. It does not hide anything, it only changes the order.
5 Time and risk
How long the money can stay untouched, and how much of it you could stand to lose.
Why we ask about time. Somaliland property is not liquid. There is no listing system and no mortgage market, so selling a plot in a hurry usually means selling it cheaply. If your money is needed back within three years, most of these options are wrong for you and we will say so on the card.
Why we ask about risk. Farmland and solar can outperform everything else here and they can also go badly wrong for reasons no manager controls: a dry season, a borehole that fails, an electricity buyer who stops paying. We do not hide options above your stated comfort, we flag them so the choice stays yours.
6 Who manages it on the ground
This is the single biggest swing factor in the whole calculation, and it is the one most people never price.
Why we ask. Distance is the real cost of investing from abroad. Someone has to verify the title, stand on the site, check what was actually delivered, chase rent and bank it. Whoever that is, they are being paid, in a fee or in leakage.
How it is used. Managed adds a visible fee. Family managed adds no fee but we apply an assumed overrun on the build and a higher rate of uncollected rent, based on cases Raya has seen. Self managed assumes you travel and carry the time cost yourself. You can see every one of these lines in the breakdown, so you can argue with them.
Worth knowing. On rental income the three routes land in a similar place. The professional fee is roughly repaid by better collection and fewer empty months. What you are really buying is certainty and your own time back.
7 About you
Optional. It only makes your saved copy and your WhatsApp message useful.
Why we ask. If you message us, we would rather open the conversation already knowing your budget, your city and what you are trying to achieve, instead of asking you to type it all again.
How it is used. Nothing is transmitted while you use this page. Your name and country are written into the file you download and into the WhatsApp message you choose to send. Leave them blank and everything still works.
Your capital, put to work
How to read the risk bands
Risk here does not mean a share price moving. It means the specific ways money is lost in this market.
Where the losses actually happen. In our experience the money is rarely lost in the investment itself. It is lost at the edges: land bought without verified title, a build with nobody independent checking what arrived on site, rent collected and never banked, and a sale forced through in a hurry. Those are the risks a professional process removes. Weather, water and a buyer who stops paying are not, and no fee can price them away.
Low risk
Once the title is verified and registered, the asset is hard to lose. Value moves slowly and steadily. Usually there is little or no monthly income, so your patience is the price of entry.
Medium risk
The income is real but it depends on a finished build, tenants who stay, and someone honest collecting every month. Setbacks cost you months of income rather than the capital itself.
High risk
Returns can be the strongest on this page and the outcome depends on things nobody controls: rainfall, a borehole, equipment security, a buyer who pays on time. Only commit money you could stand to see tied up or written off.
What these numbers assume
Every figure below is an assumption, and you are entitled to challenge each one.
Why we show this. A calculator that hides its workings is asking you to trust a number instead of understanding it. If you disagree with an assumption, tell us which one and we will run your version. That conversation is usually more valuable than the output.
Important: this is education, not financial advice
Raya Property Group is not a regulated financial adviser and does not provide financial, investment, tax or legal advice. This tool exists to help you understand how property, land, agricultural and energy investments in Somaliland typically behave. It is not a recommendation to buy anything, and it is not an offer.
Every figure here is an illustration based on typical market ranges and our own project experience. Real prices vary by street, by plot, by season and by seller. Returns are not guaranteed, past growth does not predict future growth, and you can lose money. Land and property in Somaliland are not liquid assets and may take a long time to sell.
Before committing funds, obtain independent verification of title, an inspection of the specific plot, and, where the amounts are significant to you, professional advice in your own country regarding tax and the transfer of funds.