State housing scheme lifts sluggish sector

Government’s investment in affordable housing has lifted a sector that had shown signs of distress.

According to Leading Economic Indicators December 2019 by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the value of buildings approved during the first half of the year came in at Sh113.25 billion, a 12.4 percent increase from Sh100.76 billion during the same period in 2018.

The value would have been higher were it not for delays in approval procedures in Nairobi.

“The increase in value bucks the trend that has been witnessed over the past three years,” analysts at Cytonn Investments said.

In July, the State started the construction of Pangani Heights, one of the flagship projects under the affordable housing initiative meant to deliver 500,000 residential units by 2022.

The state department of housing in October also unveiled a plan to construct 117,000 units in Nairobi’s Eastlands, a development that targets estates including Buru Buru, Makadara, Kimathi, Eastleigh, Mbotela and Majengo.