Uhurus housing agenda ..let hear from experts

[Globalcitizen12]

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Do we have housing shortage in Kenya or we have lack of income problem? Every year I see the figure of 500,000 units shortage. I have searched high and low for statistics backing this number  but I cannot find any economic survey or study that has this number.. gok is now talking of investing billions ..where is the market for this housing units or it is consultants ploy  to steal from taxpayers?..I know plans have been drawn to build high rises in East of Nairobi ..the plans were done during kibaki but every independent funding bank refused to fund these projects believing that there was no market for it and only free housing should be built to upgrade slums
Even tatu city could not hackit ..the market is very efficient..right now in Nairobi there is a glut of apartments both in upper and lower markets..so where is uburu going to put his pillar of housong? May be he is looking for way to fund a new cargo airport near joska in exchange for Wilson land

[RV Pundit]

I think if we do what Singapore did - encourage more home-owenrship in urban areas - then it doable with gok intervention to build houses of 1-2m that can be sold in tenant purchase scheme. That I think is Uhuru housing plan. Deliver so many houses that everybody can afford - at equivalent of rent.

And the other thing - private individuals [asp mwafrika] need to move outside farming and rental income - to stuff like manufacturing - and they can only move out - if gok move in and deliver really dirty cheap housing. Nobody will be building ugly flats anymore when chinese contractors will be delivering homes for a million Kshs. Now every mu-afrika is some real estate contractor..building ugly looking houses all over the country.

Look at one china man Elderkin or something selling houses in Mlolongo for 2-3m cash. Great wall Aprt in Athi River...GOK can deliver these at half the cost...coz land for them is free and they can deploy huge economies of scales.

Do we have housing shortage in Kenya or we have lack of income problem? Every year I see the figure of 500,000 units shortage. I have searched high and low for statistics backing this number  but I cannot find any economic survey or study that has this number.. gok is now talking of investing billions ..where is the market for this housing units or it is consultants ploy  to steal from taxpayers?..I know plans have been drawn to build high rises in East of Nairobi ..the plans were done during kibaki but every independent funding bank refused to fund these projects believing that there was no market for it and only free housing should be built to upgrade slums
Even tatu city could not hackit ..the market is very efficient..right now in Nairobi there is a glut of apartments both in upper and lower markets..so where is uburu going to put his pillar of housong? May be he is looking for way to fund a new cargo airport near joska in exchange for Wilson land

[Globalcitizen12]

Mwaafrika will just park funds in the bank ...how comes  no investors want to lend gok money to do so since kibaki from 1st  term ?
I saw the blue prints way back then

[RV Pundit]

uhuRuto will do it. These guys are very serious. If they did the railway ahead of time and budget - these one are easy. Just give land to chinese...chinese will finance everything. Kibaki was on auot-pilot. After Moi 10 yrs of mess - the little he did was bound to be visible.

Mwaafrika will just park funds in the bank ...how comes  no investors want to lend gok money to do so since kibaki from 1st  term ?
I saw the blue prints way back then

[Nefertiti]

Pundit - I understand "universal housing" as you do - to redirect private investment to manufacturing and services.

What will happen to the slum dwellers who can't afford rent let alone 1-2m purchase? They'll be left outside of the housing plan so it will not be really universal. Unless there will be free housing which is bound to be abused - misallocated to folks with cash -? I see slums and rural poor folks continuing to reside in squalor as this Agenda is not aimed at them.

[RV Pundit]

Pundit - I understand "universal housing" as you do - to redirect private investment to manufacturing and services.

What will happen to the slum dwellers who can't afford rent let alone 1-2m purchase? They'll be left outside of the housing plan so it will not be really universal. Unless there will be free housing which is bound to be abused - misallocated to folks with cash -? I see slums and rural poor folks continuing to reside in squalor as this Agenda is not aimed at them.

Nobody has talked about universal housing..health yes...but gov want to supply 500k low cost housing in 5yrs...and hopefully dissuade njamba from kiambu building dangerous slumscrapper all over Nairobi.

[Nefertiti]

Pundit - I understand "universal housing" as you do - to redirect private investment to manufacturing and services.

What will happen to the slum dwellers who can't afford rent let alone 1-2m purchase? They'll be left outside of the housing plan so it will not be really universal. Unless there will be free housing which is bound to be abused - misallocated to folks with cash -? I see slums and rural poor folks continuing to reside in squalor as this Agenda is not aimed at them.

Nobody has talked about universal housing..health yes...but gov want to supply 500k low cost housing in 5yrs...and hopefully dissuade njamba from kiambu building dangerous slumscrapper all over Nairobi.

Okay. Njamba prolly owns the killer scrapers collapsing in Huruma - thus his maswali mengi 

[RV Pundit]

Pundit - I understand "universal housing" as you do - to redirect private investment to manufacturing and services.

What will happen to the slum dwellers who can't afford rent let alone 1-2m purchase? They'll be left outside of the housing plan so it will not be really universal. Unless there will be free housing which is bound to be abused - misallocated to folks with cash -? I see slums and rural poor folks continuing to reside in squalor as this Agenda is not aimed at them.

Nobody has talked about universal housing..health yes...but gov want to supply 500k low cost housing in 5yrs...and hopefully dissuade njamba from kiambu building dangerous slumscrapper all over Nairobi.

Okay. Njamba prolly owns the killer scrapers collapsing in Huruma - thus his maswali mengi 

njamba spent 4yrs as caretaker of their slumscrapper in eastlands before he went to us and thereafter with her sister help has built slumscrapper in pipeline.its a kiambu thing.Majority of slumscrapper of Nairobi retires to their dairy cows in Kiambu.Gok has to step in seriously n address the low clasd deficit with china help.Njamba slumscrappers are collapsing.

[Globalcitizen12]

I would never build in  pipeline..that is hell. I saw a kid pickup and eat candy that fell on the greenish sewer water..I was mortified..I tell you Nairobi is the worst place for kids

I was there after rains in 2016 ..it was hell ..we had a suv but we choose to leave it on the side of the road and walk through the my slumlord millionaire investment..it was hell wading through that sewer landed foot paths ..the building was shaking ..can you imagine a 5 storey building swaying like stepping on swamp..the 5 the floor was leaking ..I pleaded with my buddy to get an engineer and roof the mess before it eroded the other floors ..I am glad I will never live there

[RV Pundit]

https://cytonnreport.com/research/cytonn-monthly-may-2018
the huge housing deficit of 2 mn units, growing by approximately 200,000 units per annum according to National Housing Corporation (NHC) creating demand for residential units.

[Globalcitizen12]

Cytonn who would really take such a pyramid scheme report serious. It is like listening to atwoli tslkikg about labor economics.
If this deficit existed the market forces would have stepped in to fullfil it..there is enough capital in Kenya and Africa to capitalize on such a market

Like I said the housing shortage market exists only in looters behinds..having been in the market for 30 years I know how Kenyans solve housing scarcity..the middle class buy land and save enough that in 5 to 10 years they are able to start buikding ..a young employed couple with middle class income usually has a house built by age 35..those that mortgage are the financially illiterate.

Right now I am running an occoupancy of 88 percent..there is glut in the market and only war on corruption and aging diaspora investors will solve the glut.

Uhuru should build free public housing and proper housing for police and other low income civil servants ..there is no place in Kenya for Chinese ghost cities we are not a communist state...unless uhuru is willing to take everyone land in Nairobi his housing pipe dream with die like moi and jirongo estates or the rural and urban finance estate in early 80s

[hk]

Anyone who pays rent of 20k in kenya should be able to afford a mortgage if the system was working. With high interest rates very few can afford. Also kenya hasn't developed 30yr mortage that can spread monthly payments to affordable prices. Government building house is trying to artificially solve this instead of addressing the fundamental problems that has driven the cost of housing high relative to citizens income levels.

[RV Pundit]

I agree on the first part. I disagree on the second part. I think Gov should be on low-cost housing on a long-term permanent basis. I mean colonial gov used to do it. Private sector should be left to focus on house for middle & upper class..but gov should focus on building really affordable low-cost housing - they don't have to turn profit - but they also don't have to drain taxes. Gov has land and can acquire land - they also can enter into deal with big construction companies to deliver housing and upgrade slums.

Anyone who pays rent of 20k in kenya should be able to afford a mortgage if the system was working. With high interest rates very few can afford. Also kenya hasn't developed 30yr mortage that can spread monthly payments to affordable prices. Government building house is trying to artificially solve this instead of addressing the fundamental problems that has driven the cost of housing high relative to citizens income levels.

[RV Pundit]

We need those ghost cities here - to replace slums and mud houses - we have huge housing deficit - China has a construction machine - we just need to tap into that - the so called real estate sector in kenya should be left to deliver few middle & upper class units - if not completely divested from real estate to other profitable sectors like manufacturing.

Cytonn who would really take such a pyramid scheme report serious. It is like listening to atwoli tslkikg about labor economics.
If this deficit existed the market forces would have stepped in to fullfil it..there is enough capital in Kenya and Africa to capitalize on such a market

Like I said the housing shortage market exists only in looters behinds..having been in the market for 30 years I know how Kenyans solve housing scarcity..the middle class buy land and save enough that in 5 to 10 years they are able to start buikding ..a young employed couple with middle class income usually has a house built by age 35..those that mortgage are the financially illiterate.

Right now I am running an occoupancy of 88 percent..there is glut in the market and only war on corruption and aging diaspora investors will solve the glut.

Uhuru should build free public housing and proper housing for police and other low income civil servants ..there is no place in Kenya for Chinese ghost cities we are not a communist state...unless uhuru is willing to take everyone land in Nairobi his housing pipe dream with die like moi and jirongo estates or the rural and urban finance estate in early 80s

[Omollo]

This goes at the CORE of my disagreement with HK. Hos obession with the private Sector and the rest of the shameless parasites.

I have said before and will go to my grave repeating: Only governments can solve the housing crisis. Only Governments can expand the so called Private Housing Market. The government builds then the parasites move in to speculate!

Kenya would have succeeded had the USAID not come in to derai the National Housing Corporation. Tanzania achieved much greater success with the NHC despite a dearth of foreign cash. Their NHC owns more residential and Commercial buildings than the Kenyan USAID funded and controlled NHC.

The mistake made by NHC- Ke was to focus on mortgages and stand alone structures mostly maisonettes and bungalows in the 70s and 80s. A lot of space was wasted. All the people in any of the Buru Buru shanties could have fitted in less than ten high rise buildings leaving lots of room for more. The idea was never about providing housing. It was about creating what HK likes to talk about.

So if one is seeking to end the housing crisis, the construction of high rise blocks to be owned by the state / county government is way to go. Later ofcourse one can allow HK and others to buy some of them and continue their speculation.

I would even go as far as compulsorily acquiring the Buru Buru and Langata (Onyonka, Ngei, Julia etc) slums razing them to the ground and putting up collective housing.

[Omollo]

Just so we are clear, I consider most of the USAID built estates as slums. You know where they are.