by admin 
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta launched an affordable housing program as one of four major agendas of his manifesto to promote long-term economic development at the beginning of his second term in 2018. His government had planned to deliver 500,000 units by the end of 2022.
However, they have only delivered about 1,000 units through the Pangani and Park Road Ngara projects.
What is Affordable Housing then? Affordable housing refers to housing units that are affordable to sections of society whose income is below the median household income.
Affordable housing is becoming a significant issue, especially in developing nations where a large segment of the population isn’t able to buy houses at the market price.
President William Ruto noted that the housing gap now stands at two million units. He said, “The demand for affordable housing is an opportunity to create jobs and stimulate the economy,”.
We know that this topic is an area of concern as the president has given details of his plan to deliver 200,000 housing units annually.
Providing affordable housing remains a problem for many countries both, underdeveloped and developed.
The rapid increase in urban population, high cost of construction, bureaucracy, shortage of land for development, high prices of urban land, and poor physical and social infrastructure are some of the challenges in Kenya.
Affordable housing being the main agenda, investors in the private sector have also been invited to take part in it.
The government has admitted that only pragmatic solutions will help to bridge the affordable housing gap.
For a long time, the housing sector has been approached using traditional strategies, and hence why not much progress has been realized.
There are companies that are now coming up with very innovative products in housing to enable buyers to purchase units affordably and help developers to bring more units to the market at a faster rate.
One of the companies that has been at the forefront and has been recognized for such efforts is Naivera through its Assetisha product which is an online marketplace for property-based financing.
Naivera is helping many to own affordable housing by creating a marketplace where all the stakeholders can meet and create wealth together. Their efforts were recognized recently by a European accelerator program, Start-up Wise Guys, who are helping the company to scale the idea in the region.
Naivera is among the few companies that qualified for acceleration by SWG bringing together only 9 companies from Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana, that are offering relevant solutions to local societal and economic challenges.
For those asking how long it can take to get back their investment, an affordable house investment should be able to return the investment in LESS than 10 years.
This is just another way to prove that investment in housing is one of the best ideas one can think about. Stop overthinking and start doing. The investment journey starts with that first step of making an inquiry call, followed up by a site visit and the rest is history. Talk to us today.
