High costs push dream of low-cost housing beyond reach

Food is a basic need. The others are shelter and clothing.

That is why when a family moves from one house to a better residence or location, it considers this an achievement.

And that is why the slum upgrading projects in towns and cities in the developing world get attention of decision-makers, development partners, and philanthropists.

When families leave humble structures made of rusty iron sheets, polythene bags, and cartons to stone houses like has happened in Nairobi’s Mathare and Kibera slums, adults can’t hide their joy laughing into the wide lenses of news cameras.

A month ago, when 200 families from Mathare slums left their shacks and moved into new spacious tiled-roof three bedroom houses in Isinya, their joy was palpable.

But, so far, the dream of better housing, through the low-cost schemes, remains distant for millions of families because of slow processes involving private developers, humanitarian organisations and churches.

While the target market is ready and big — with at least two million Kenyans said to be living in squalid conditions in Nairobi’s slums and other major towns — the quest to provide low-cost housing continues to falter under the heavy weight of a host of challenges as the government seems not to get it right on incentives.

Government projects to house the houses decently has moved in tandem with controversy while private developers have eyes on the more lucrative middle and high-end markets, where there is a ready market.

In these areas, infrastructure — estimated to take at least 25 per cent of the construction cost — is better compared to the low income areas where roads, water, and electricity are scarce, frustrating efforts to invest in such areas.

“The high cost of land, which has acquired a speculative angle due to the rush to accumulate makes the construction of affordable housing for the lower end of the pyramid more difficult,” says Moses Wekesa, the director of Property Supply at Housing Finance, the leading mortgage provider in the local market.

“Previous efforts to provide low-cost housing was possible as the government donated the land for the construction of such housing schemes,” says Mr Wekesa.

The government backed Nyayo Highrise Estate which was meant to house some Kibera residents came a cropper when the middle-class ran ahead of the slum-dwellers.

A similar outcome faced the upgrade of Mathare 4A where the ownership wrangles pitting the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi and the residents over payment of rent, claiming the houses were built on their land and were entitled to free housing.

For private developers, the trouble is bigger.

Real estate experts reckon reforms in the housing industry to allow for clustering housing schemes based on people’s income, work location and availability of infrastructure could boost the quest for low-cost housing.