On Thursday 27th September 2018, Patricia Wachira, Senior Research Analyst at Cytonn Investments was a key note speaker on “Affordable Housing in Kenya” at the Multimedia University Innovation Week. The annual forum organized by the university in collaboration with key industry stakeholders is geared towards promoting research and innovation in order to foster innovations that address local and global challenges.
Patricia Wachira making her presentation on Affordable Housing
The 2018 event is the 4th Innovation Week held by the university and was themed ‘Embracing Sustainable Technology to Spur Innovation in Realization of the Big 4 Agenda’ The forum was subdivided into presentations by key industry players, talks and panel discussions on various trending tech topics and innovations in the following 4 areas: 1. Research and Innovation in Health Care, 2. Sustainable Development in Manufacturing and Trade, 3. Renewable Energy Technologies, 4. Affordable Housing and Clean Cities, 5. Use of ICT in Industry, Marketing and Media, 6. Food safety and security.
Participants following the day’s deliberations
Speaking during the event, Patricia noted, “According to the National Housing Corporation, Kenya needs 250,000 housing units annually with the gap mainly being in the lower middle to low-income segment.”
Patricia also spoke of the obligation of the government to ensure provision of housing to its population and as such the decision of the government to plug in to champion affordable housing. “The government intends to use funding from budgetary allocation, leveraging on the NSSF balance sheet and the private sector at 10.0%, 30% and 60% allocation, respectively to deliver 500,000 affordable homes in the next 4 years” she said
A participant poses a question during the session
While speaking during the forum, Patricia noted that in order for the affordable housing initiative to be a success, it will require the involvement of various stakeholders including the government, developers, financiers, consultants in the construction sector, policy-makers and the general public with key focus being on bringing down construction costs and enabling access to financing for both developers and home-buyers at favorable costs.
To realize the affordable housing initiative, Patricia emphasized the need for 1. Explore cheaper and innovative building technologies to lower construction cost, or reduce construction periods, 2. Deepening of Capital Markets & Access to Non-Bank Funding for developers such as structured products, 3. Set-up and adherence to strict rules and eligibility measures for house-purchase e.g. minimum occupancy periods and housing to income ceilings and 4. Innovative payment plans such as Zero deposit payments and tenant purchase plans as a means of reducing the financial burden for potential home-buyers.
