Editor’s Note– Players in Kenya’s housing industry converged at the conference mecca of Naivasha on December 8th and 9th, 2021 to take stock of achievements under the Affordable Housing Pillar of the Big 4 Agenda, enhance demand and supply sides linkages and discuss issues affecting the delivery of affordable housing and how to resolve them.
Convened by the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) and the State Department for Housing and Urban Development, the Affordable Housing Conference, the first of its kind in Kenya, also made available a platform for Housing Sector stakeholders to network and hear from seasoned sector experts and thought leaders.
The conference, on the theme Affordable Housing in Kenya: Leveraging the Supply and Demand Linkages, also brought together public and private sector players to discuss demand and supply side factors relevant to the delivery of affordable housing in Kenya.
The Affordable Housing Conference targeted project developers, investors – pension funds, insurance companies, SACCOs, consumers, development partners (AfDB, USAID, World Bank, IFC), Government MDAs and County Governments. Others are financiers, consultancy firms, policy makers and regulators, research institutions and professional associations in the built environment. The conference came against the backdrop of an aggressive Affordable Housing Program (AHP), that the Government is currently implementing. The Government has also tasked both private and public sectors’ stakeholders to reimagine practical measures that can be implemented in the short to medium term to fast-track delivery of housing objectives. In his recent State of the Nation address to Kenya’s Legislature, President Uhuru Kenyatta noted that some 186,000 units had been constructed in the last four years.
Housing is recognized as one of the critical sectors under the social pillar of the Vision 2030, Kenya’s main economic blueprint. Further, Affordable Housing has been prioritized as one of the initiatives under President Kenyatta’s “Big 4 Agenda” to ensure that low and middle-income households have access to decent and affordable housing units. Additionally, AHP is one of the Government’s main development objectives for the period 2017 – 2022, under the third medium term plan (MTP III) of Kenya’s Vision 2030. The State Department for Housing and Urban Development is mandated to implement the Program by providing an enabling environment and implementing plans to deliver 500,000 affordable housing units.
At the end of the two-day conference, a declaration was prepared by the convenors, recapping the discussions and resolutions agreed upon by the stakeholders. The declaration was ratified and will be used to guide the actions and decisions of all housing stakeholders in ensuring that they all play their part to positively transform the sector and make the home ownership journey an exciting experience for all Kenyans.
See the full PDF declaration Affordable Housing Conference Declaration 08122021