An estate in Nairobi. [Photo/DavidOcholla]
The government is contemplating the use of Industrialised Building Systems to help fast-track the housing projects being implemented by civil servants.
Housing and Urban Development Permanent Secretary, Idah Munano, says this will would help reduce the cost of putting up the buildings aimed at providing affordable housing to the people.
Speaking in Murang’a, the PS said plans are underway to build 500,000 housing units in the next five years, with priority being given to the slums. The State is going to explore on technologies to improve on the speed of construction and affordability of the units, she said.
“A house which is constructed in eight to six months can be constructed in two weeks time and with this, we are sure of hitting our targets in time,” she added. Monano also said the department is trying to reach out to private developers to negotiate with them on the incentives they need for them to participate in the projects.
“We want to adopt the public-private partnership model by bringing private developers on board and this is going to ease pressure on our side,” she said.
The PS said they would look also for affordable financing, saying this has been a major challenge facing the sector. Munano said financing for homeownership is expensive and is making many people shy away from taking mortgages.
“In the whole country, we only have 22,000 mortgage accounts despite having close to 10 million working people and this can only tell there is a challenge in the sector,” she said.
In addition, the department will invest in land banking as an alternative avenue to generate more income for the State, saying they are negotiating with county governments on the public land available.