Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome has urged for more investment abroad in Kenya’s ambitious Affordable Housing programme.

Speaking at the South Africa - Kenya Affordable Housing Forum in South Africa on Thursday, Wahome assured investors of incentives to ensure its 200,000 units annually target is met.

The incentives she mentioned include free land offered by counties, construction subsidies and tax exemptions on construction material as well as the provision of bulk infrastructure.

“The projects are being implemented on National and County Governments' land, which will be availed at no cost,” assured the CS.

Wahome added: “The Government has also subsidized, facilitated, and incentivized the program through providing bulk infrastructure to the proposed housing developments, settling the landless Kenyans by purchasing land and also looking into the historical injustices, offering tax incentives such as VAT exemption on all input materials such as steel and cement and also made stamp duty exempt for all first-time homeowners.”

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The government estimates the average national annual housing demand at 250,000 units annually, and the average national annual housing supply at 50,000 housing units per year.

Kenya is urbanizing at a rapid rate of 4.2 percent per annum that is not commensurate with planning and provision of basic needs, services, and infrastructure. One of the major consequences of rapid urbanization is a huge housing deficit.

She assured private sector investors Kenya is addressing numerous hurdles in the housing sector including high cost of land, limited long-term funding and costly building materials.

“The Programme commits to deliver 200,000 housing units per annum, by activating projects across the Nation; as well as increase the number of mortgages from the current 30,000 to 1,000,000 with favorable ownership terms that have monthly repayments of as low as Sh5,000,” Wahome stated.

The Affordable Housing Programme targets to deliver decent and affordable housing to low and middle-income households leveraging private sector participation to fund the projects.

“The government has a facility in place with the World Bank and Africa Development Bank that will allow homeowners with a single-digit interest rate loan to be repaid over long term through the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company,” she noted.

Wahome stated that the President William Ruto administration is addressing policy hurdles and collaborating with SMEs and Jua Kali sector to supply material to the housing projects.

Kenya is also implementing the Building Climate Resilience for the Urban Poor (BCRUP) initiative and the Second Phase of the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project.

She says these interventions will ensure Kenya provides her citizens with decent affordable housing in line with the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.