Why government has been unable to build 500k affordable houses - PS Hinga

In an interview with Citizen Digital's Property Simplified show, Hinga cited four reasons, among them, the cost of land as factors that made it difficult to build affordable housing.

The other factors cited are: the cost of construction, titling and an old building code.

President Kenyatta had targeted to build 500,000 houses as one of the pillars of his Big 4 Agenda.

The other pillars are affordable healthcare, food security and manufacturing.

Hinga said that under 9,000 units of public housing have been delivered to date. 

"It's not easy to give a figure of how many units have been delivered to date. That is because we have two sets of housing: we have public housing on government land, which is under 9,000 units (that have been delivered). The balance (units) are being delivered by the private sector. The government's main role is supportive. This was after a departure after the Housing Fund was frustrated," he said.

On the cost of land as a barrier to the delivery of affordable housing, Hinga said, "You cannot have the most expensive land on the continent and affordable housing in the same statement."

"Land contributes 40% to 60% of the cost of the unit. If we are to deliver affordable housing, we have to sort out systemic issues."

Hinga said to deal with the issue, the government opted to build houses on its land and these would be zero-rated.

On the cost of construction, Hinga said the government spared developers the cost VAT, to lower the cost of building.

"The 16% is an actual cost, which was removed."

Hinga said titling was a big issue.

"We have a big problem with our titling section and the sanctity of the titles. If as an investor I do not trust the title, then I'm not putting in my money," he said.

"We digitised to deal with this problem. Because this is a big shift, it keeps being frustrated."

The Ardhisasa platform was launched in April last year. It aims to be a digital, one-stop-shop for all land transactions to curb cases of graft.

Hinga said that updating of the building code was important so that not only stone was recognised as the only permanent building material.

"We had an old building code which only recognised stone."

With the update of the building code, other materials, including panels, 3D printing, expanded polystyrene (EPS) and stabilised soil blocks are recognised building materials.