Maseno woos property investors into student housing

Maseno University has approached real estate investors to provide accommodation for students after their first year of study. Vice chancellor Dominic Makawiti said that the institution’s rural setting presented opportunities for real estate investors.

“There is a shortage of competitively priced student accommodation that can be used as an affordable alternative to shared housing within the general rental market,” said Prof Makawiti.

Students in the second year move from guaranteed bed space to compete for the limited university accommodation where they are assured of water, electricity, security and other amenities.

Competition for the spaces has intensified since last year’s double-intake and an annual growth of 20 per cent in student population. This has forced many students to live in private hostels, some of them in conditions lacking basic services.

The university has bed space for 6,400 of its 10,000 students while the University of Nairobi is able to accommodate for only 11,000 of its 65,000 students.

The universities are now focusing investments on academic programmes instead of student accommodation. The government has also withdrawn subsidies for housing students, while the numbers continue increasing yearly.

The state of affairs has pushed universities, private and public, to find ways of accommodating through partnerships. Kenyatta University is looking for investors in a Sh1 billion deal to build student hostels (see article).

Maseno is wooing investors to set up single and double occupancy units. Prof Makawiti said each unit would earn investors about Sh5,000 per semester.

He said investors had the option of buying land around the university, leasing public land held in trust by local authorities or construct on university land through Public Private Partnerships.