Ministry to put up 10,000 houses in Nairobi estates

Private investors will put up 10,000 housing units in Nairobi’s Park Road, Shauri Moyo and Starehe in the next three years as the State moves to implement its grand plan to house workers.

The Lands, Housing and Urban Development ministry on Wednesday invited local and international investors to build the units in the first phase of the government home ownership scheme to be executed under a public-private partnership (PPP).

Under the scheme, the State will provide land in the three estates while the successful applicants will put up the low-cost houses for civil servants.

“The projects shall comprise financing, design, construction and management of housing units and associated amenities,” the ministry said in a public notice.

Once complete, the units will be occupied by low-cadre civil servants who will repay the loans in installments of between Sh2,000 and Sh4,000 per month and get titles upon completion.

“It is expected the construction will take about three years while operations and transfers may take a minimum ten years,” the ministry said.

In April, Lands principal secretary Mariamu El Maawy said the workers, who include clerks, secretaries and office assistants, will be able to own the houses in about 15 years. This implies that the government employees will pay about Sh800,000 for each of the units.

Under the scheme, workers will pay a 10 per cent deposit and monthly repayments over a period of 18 years or until they retire at 60 years, or whichever comes first.

In Starehe, 6,400 units will be built on 20 acres; 2,000 units will be built in 11.5 acres in Shauri Moyo and in Park Road, 1,600 units will be put up on nine acres.

These will mark the first phase of the 300,000 housing units plan that the State plans to build in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nyeri.

The developments will be a departure from the past where the government has focused on housing for civil servants above job group K.

In 2012, the State offered two and three bedroom apartments valued at Sh3.2 million and Sh4.2 million respectively, which required civil servants to make a minimum monthly payment of Sh20,247. The high cost technically locked out workers earning less than Sh58,000 per month.

Applicants for the contracts will be allowed to bid for one or all three housing projects. The multi-billion projects are expected to open another front for fierce competition between local and international investors in the real estate sector.

International companies, which can access cheap credit from their home countries, have been snapping up real estate deals prompting the National Construction Authority to propose ring-fencing public projects below Sh5 billion for local institutions.