Politics and policy
High costs push dream of low-cost housing beyond reach
Kibera slums with new houses in the background. Rising cost of building materials has been identified as a major factor denying the masses proper housing. Photo/FILE
Posted Tuesday, March 9 2010 at 00:00
Jamii members apply for mortgage and are allocated a house, whose repayment runs for between five and 20 years.
The lack of a saving culture has also immensely contributed to limited access to housing.
Says Mr Ireri: “We have a poor culture of savings and hence even upgrading our informal systems is bound to face the reality of the beneficiaries being required to repay their mortgage but probably not willing to make the sacrifice.”, said Mr. Ireri.
Given the high cost of construction the need to use appropriate technology has been fronted as one that is expected to lower the overall cost.
Prompt payments
“We need to change the country building regulation codes to allow the use of locally available materials such as prefabricated walling materials, stabilising blocks to reduce the cost of development”, said Reginald Okumu of Ark Consultants.
The Jamii Bora housing scheme has managed to confront the ogre of cost by engaging in on site production of the building materials such as blocks and tiles.
These have enabled the scheme to cut down on the cost of purchase of these building materials and also the associated overheads such as transport.
Other players have adopted different approaches to the provision of affordable houses.
A case in point is Habitat for Humanity Kenya (HFHK) which is providing financial resources to low income earners to construct their own homes.
“We are providing construction funds to people who plan to put up houses in three phases to ensure repayment is made to initial instalment before availing more funds,” said Simon Nyabwengi, the national director of Habitat for Humanity.
According to Mr Nyabwengi, the phased fund provision ensures members are prompt in repayments hence reducing the possibilities of default.
“The new programme of advancing the loans in tranches will ensure we process more applications while at the same time realise quick repayment as borrowers will be motivated to repay in order to access the subsequent tranche to complete their construction”.
Innovative schemes
Habitat for Humanity targets people whose monthly income is less than Sh25,000 making the majority of the beneficiaries to be the low income earners.
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