State says house to cost Sh1.5m in ‘Big Four’ plan
Taxpayers will shoulder the cost of designing houses and sourcing cheaper building technology. FILE PHOTO | NMG
What you need to know:
- The 70 per cent drop will be supported by free public land to private property developers and building of access roads, electricity and water connection to housing schemes.
Average house prices for home buyers under a State housing plan will fall to Sh1.5 million from the current market price of Sh5 million per unit, the government says.
The 70 per cent drop will be supported by free public land to private property developers and building of access roads, electricity and water connection to housing schemes.
Taxpayers will also shoulder the cost of designing houses and sourcing cheaper building technology.
“With provision of land, infrastructure, technology (and) the designs, we should get a house that will normally cost Sh5 million at Sh1.5 million,” said Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia in a telephone interview.
“They (private developers) should not even be bothered by that (land, infrastructure, power and water) because we are providing all that. All we want them to do is construction.”
The ministry has already mapped out about 7,000 acres of public land for the construction of up to a million low-cost houses in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret by 2022.
Initial estimates put the total cost of the ambitious project – which will include 800,000 units for sale and 200,000 social housing units in the slums – at Sh2.3 trillion.
The plan, to be implemented under public-private partnership (PPPs) framework, is part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ‘Big Four’ agenda that targets 500,000 low-cost houses.
The ministry in January short-listed 35 out of 60 developers keen to build 8,000 low-cost houses on 55 acres at Mavoko in Machakos.
The Mavoko scheme will act as a model for subsequent projects.
