300,000 desperate Kenyans scramble for 228 low-cost housing units
More than 300,000 people have expressed interest in the 228 low-cost houses put up in Nairobi’s Ngara estate.
Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said allocation will be done based on gender equity and diversity.
Mr Hinga said information on the planned sale that will also consider marginalised and vulnerable groups is available on their online portals, bomayangu.go.ke and housingandurban.go.ke.
“The government will be allocating the completed houses in Parkroad, Ngara. The allocation process of these houses is done in accordance with the Constitution,” he said in a notice.
The units put up by China State Construction Engineering are part of 1,370 housing units currently under construction at the 7.9-acre parcel formerly owned by the government where 48 standalone bungalows constructed during the colonial period stood.
The development will see 548 units reserved for civil servants while the rest will be sold at fixed prices to other people.
The units are in three different types – a one bedroomed unit worth Sh1 million, Sh2 million for a two-bedroomed unit and Sh3 million for a three-bedroomed unit.
Beneficiaries who are unable to settle the purchase price on the spot will have to pay a 10 per cent deposit with the rest paid for the next 25 years under a rent-to-own arrangement.
Other AHP housing projects are set for commissioning next week, with Mr Hinga projecting to deliver 140,000 units in the next 24 months in different parts of the country.
The AHP programme rides on a public/private partnership where the government provides land that is used by private investors to put up units at their own expense for sale to Kenyans.
Investors benefit from a 30 percent allocation of land, thereby enabling them to recoup their capital outlay in the AHOP project.
To generate ready demand, the government recently formed Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company that will enable banks to give out low-cost mortgages.