Economy

State targets innovation in Sh2.3trn affordable homes plan

apartments

Apartment blocks in Huruma, Nairobi County. The State is targeting innovative developers to raise the bulk of the estimated Sh2.3 trillion to implement President Uhuru Kenyatta’s affordable housing project. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The State is targeting innovative developers to raise the bulk of the estimated Sh2.3 trillion to implement President Uhuru Kenyatta’s affordable housing project.

The Principal Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Aidah Munano said on Tuesday the ministry was working on an incentive package to attract international developers into the project that targets up to a million low-cost housing units by 2022.

READ: Tight budget cuts loom as State seeks funds for Big Four agenda

Affordable housing is one of the “Big Four” policy agendas in Mr Kenyatta’s legacy term which ends in August 2022.

The other sectors are manufacturing, food security and universal healthcare.

Ms Munano, however, said the 500,000 units was the bare minimum and that the ministry was targeting up to a million units.

The project will seek to put up 800,000 affordable units targeting buyers and 200,000 social units through development of land in slums in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret.

READ: INDEPTH: Mega projects aid construction sector to record Sh100 billion

ALSO READ: 35 private firms back Uhuru’s new homes plan - VIDEO

Corporate tax

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich in 2016 halved corporate tax for developers who put up at least 400 low-cost residential houses to 15 per cent.

The 0.5 per cent levy and a minimum of Sh10,000 or 0.1 per cent levy on total cost of construction charged by National Construction Authority and National Environmental Management Authority, respectively, was scrapped in the same year.

“Related legislations are also being reviewed to address release of affordable Funds for both the spply and demand sides for affordable housing,” Ms Munano said.

“Counties are also encouraged to invest in social housing to cater for the influx of people moving to the county headquarters from the rural areas in search of employment and business opportunities.”