Interior designers without professional permits will be barred from real estate projects in a proposed law by the Lands and Housing Ministry that targets to curb poor workmanship.
The Institute of Designers Kenya Bill, 2023, proposes to establish an institute that would develop a professional code and standards, and regulate all interior designers in the country.
“The principal object of the bill is to provide for the development, protection, promotion of creative designs and facilitate the development of Interior Design and Creative graphic design practices in Kenya,” the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development said.
Under the proposed Bill, the State shall have powers to register, compile, revise, and publish lists of persons and firms registered as interior designers.
The State is planning to reign in on rogue interior designers at a time it has tightened its grip on a plan to build at least 500,000 affordable houses annually.
Interior designers will play a key role in delivering quality houses under the plan, meaning that the government is taking no chances to restore sanity in the sector.
Affordable housing was put in place as one of the Big Four agenda items by the previous administration. It has since picked up pace over the past year after the Kenya Kwanza administration identified it as one of the key policy areas, largely under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. This was informed by the annual housing deficit that is estimated at 200,000 units.
Expensive home loans, owing to several factors, including the high cost of land, low levels of income, and limited access to affordable long-term finance, have curtailed the development of the mortgage market in Kenya.
As a result, the State together with the World Bank, lenders and other financial institutions, teamed to form the Kenya Mortgage Refinancing Company, which is disbursing loans to primary lenders such as banks.
