This archive report was first published on 20 July 2021.
Making Housing Schemes Affordable, Gov't Urged ¶
July 20, 2021
Kenya's housing crisis has been a long-standing issue, with many citizens struggling to own homes due to high costs of building materials and lack of financing options.
According to the 2015/16 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS), homeownership in urban areas stood at 26.1%, while 61% of Kenyans lived in informal settlements, as reported by the World Bank.
Despite the government's Big Four Agenda on Housing, which aims to build 500,000 houses for lower and middle-income populations by next year, many Kenyans still face significant barriers to homeownership.
One of the main challenges is the high cost of building materials, which has led to a surge in informal settlements and slums across the country.
Property developers, such as Focus Realtors Housing Cooperative in Embu County, have called on the government to reduce the minimum units required to benefit from the affordable housing programme from 100 to 10.
Chairman Jamal Runyenje stated, 'As small societies, we cannot afford to build those number units in a year to benefit from the incentive.'
Runyenje also urged the government to reduce taxation on building materials and extend incentives to medium financial institutions that empower common people to accumulate wealth.
Focus Realtors Housing Supervisory Committee Chair Jim Njiru called on the government to cushion Kenyans from unscrupulous housing cooperatives and real estate companies that charge exorbitant interest rates.
Njiru attributed the high cost of building materials to challenges of importing them due to the Covid-19 pandemic and suggested that government subsidies and regulation of sellers could address the issue.
