With Koto, you can build a decent house in one month

Changing technology in the real estate sector has given homeowners a reason to smile because some of the new technology is offering affordable costs of building homes.

With various options available in the construction industry, home owners can breathe a sigh of relief due to affordable yet reliable forms of construction brought about by various forms of technologies.

Expandable Polystyrene Technology is the use of petroleum by-products and steel to manufacture prefabricated slabs that can be used as walls. The petroleum by-products are heated and expanded to form the foam slabs used in this technology.

Koto Housing is one such company using the expandable polystyrene (EPS) technology in building houses which can take a minimum of three weeks for a bungalow to a maximum of three months for a maisonette.

The technology which is borrowed from Malaysia is said to have been one of the most innovative ways of construction a house using the panels instead of blocks of concrete.

At first Koto imported the slabs from Malaysia but later started producing them in the country after putting up a factory in Mlolongo, which now produces these slabs.

Light weight

Most of the houses are put up in less than a month due to the light weight of the polystyrene materials.

The raft which is the foundation of the house is normally not dug as deep as that of a traditional house. After the raft is set up, well-laid with steel bars erected from it, the panels are then placed proportionately on the building structure.

These panels which have a standard size of about 1.2 metres in length and 1.8 metres in width are made of foam which enables them to fill them with concrete in order to stabilise the walls.

Koto lets users choose from a range of house designs covering everything from two-bedroom bungalows to five bedroom villas.

Bungalows start at Sh3 million for an 85 square metre (sqm) building with two bedrooms to Sh6.3 million for one twice as large with three.

Their maisonettes begin at 150sqm (a Sh5.5 million four-bedroom affair) and go as large as 215sqm (a Sh8.5 million five-bedroom house).

Prices cover materials and construction and are exclusive of the cost of the land. Custom house plans may need costly adjustments to fit the technology.

The polystyrene technology is said to save home owners up to 30 per cent of the construction costs when compared to the traditional brick and mortar technology.

Some of the costs curbed using the Koto technology are plastering. Due to the smooth surface of the panels, one is able to simply do the finishing.

Cost

“The signed partnership deal early this month with Jamii Bora Bank has also given us leverage over other companies as homeowners can now instantly own a home without spending too much money or time,” says Moses Nderitu, MD of Koto Housing.

Developers are now aware of the opportunity to put up houses fast and sell them to the market and see more developments in record time. This will also address the housing problem in the country with statistics from the industry showing the demand for housing units has driven the cost of houses due to constrained supply.

Through this technology, a construction company is able to put up 300 housing units in month.

This will also curb speculation about a bubble burst in Kenya’s real estate sector due to the perceived oversupply of housing units which remain vacant for months and sometimes years because of their high price as this technology will lower the cost of buying or building a house.

It will also discourage people from buying land for speculative purposes because they would reap more benefits by using these affordable technologies in putting up housing units and selling them at a higher rate than they would get from just selling land.

Earthquake proof

The technology is more marketable now with the support of county governments which have signed construction contracts with companies using this technology.

The National Housing Corporation (NHC) which is already using this technology to put up 5000 housing units for police officers.

“This technology is stronger than the traditional brick and mortar houses since the slabs are bullet proof, bomb proof and can withstand an earthquake,” says Wachira Njuguna, Managing Director of National Housing Corporation.

Training

More contractors are said to prefer this method of building due to its cost saving implications, rubble and waste management as well as its ability to reduce construction timelines by more than a half and are currently training their employees on the technology.

Valuers are also being trained on how to value houses built using this technology.

With an annual demand of 200,000 housing units against a supply of 50,000 units, Kenya is set to revolutionise the real estate sector through the use of this very affordable technology.

UPDATED 30/03/15 to include the price ranges for the two types of houses available.