Kenya needs a new master plan to help deliver at least six million housing units over the next 20 years if the current housing shortage is to be overcome, architects have said.
According to Mr Steven Oundo, the chairman of the Architectural Association of Kenya, this means that about 300,000 units will need to be produced every year.
Currently, it is estimated that the country produces between 35,000 and 40,000 units a year against a demand of about 150,000 units in urban areas alone.
“This (our proposal) is a realistic target,” said Mr Oundo.
One way of encouraging such developments, he said, was for the government to provide tax incentives, including value added tax exemption on professional services for consultants involved in low-cost development projects worth at least Sh20 million.
The conclusion of the revisions to the building code will also promote the adoption of new technologies in building, considering that it is more performance- than material-specific, he added.
“The high construction cost has been compounded by high taxation of building materials. There are few locally manufactured materials used in Kenya. We are, therefore, exposed to such increases in costs of building materials, compounded by the weakening position of the Kenya shilling against the major world currencies,” he said.
The increasing cost of electricity, he added, also impacts negatively on the construction costs, particularly with regard to cement production where there is heavy consumption of electricity.
“We end up producing cement that is much more expensive than that produced in Egypt or India,” he said.
“We find ourselves in a situation where planning for amenities follows development instead of the actual construction being undertaken on serviced land. This has partly contributed to excessive speculation on land prices.”
Source: Daily Nation
Surely you wouldn’t just drop boxes beside each other and have them face an ugly parking lot! Where’s the Kenyan context in that? I know several of your countrymen and they are all very talented and interesting people. These ‘homes’ would not be suitable for my Kenyan friends to live in.
What plans are there for manufacturing your own building materials?
It is feasible to produce 150_1 million units of housing in kenya.The building code that is so cement friendly has to be expanded.and housing has to allow for green
prefab concepts.There has not been serious goodwill on the governments part to have private sector implement this,but with the new constitution the counties will bring in innovation to achieve this hopefully.