New plan will see one million housing units built in five years. FILE PHOTO | NMG
One-man real estate firms dominating the residential housing
scene face imminent disruption after the government invited real estate
conglomerates to put up 8,000 units using modern technologies.
Unlike
the present situation where private developers seek and purchase their
own parcels of land, the invited mass-housing builders have been given a
major leeway where the government will provide the land for the planned
houses.
Already several mass-housing companies have
set up building raw materials in the country and have had their building
technologies approved ahead of national rollout.
The
new Public-Private Partnership deal could drive small players out of the
market since government-fronted firms would enjoy faster approval of
plans unlike currently where contractors and project owners wait for
months to get approval for the planned projects.
Though
the advice to small and one-man real estate firms is thinly veiled, the
government has given them an opportunity to remain afloat by urging
them to form consortiums and come up with housing models that could be
mass produced, built within a short time while maintaining high quality
at competitively low costs.
This means, a housing
developer, a financier and a building products firm could form a Special
Purpose Vehicle to bid for the tenders advertised by the government for
the Mavoko project that closes on October 30.
The
tender, under the Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC) delivery model
seek to promote low cost technologies that are currently shunned by
Kenyans who deem them to be sub-standard.
State
department of Housing and Urban Development said only companies with a
record of implementing big housing projects within a short time will be
granted leave to bid for implementation of the project on a 55 piece of
land set aside within Mavoko Sub-county.
Under the EPC
model, the government seeks to lure deep pocketed contractors or
established firms with reputable records of similar large scale
developments.
The EPC model, is where a firm funds
development of a project to be paid upon completion once the government
is certified with the final product.
“The developers,
either acting individually or in a consortium, should consider quality,
cost and time when executing the project that will comprise of housing
units, social and security facilities with the associated physical
infrastructure such as drainage, roads, water and energy connections,”
it adds.
This is akin to the high-end gated communities
that have become the norm implemented by individual real estate firms,
saccos and even banks as well as equity funds’ firms.
The
government said it was targeting to build up to one million housing
units within the next five years thereby providing urban dwellers with
decent and affordable houses.
To fasttrack the
project’s implementation, the government said it will facilitate mass
housing projects where at least 200,000 housing units will be
constructed annually under the EPC model.
Contractors
are provided with parcels of land for the projects where they develop
site plans as well as architectural plans for the identified project.
Among
the technologies being fronted are the factory made wall panels,
pillars that have seen several local and foreign firms set up
multi-billion shilling factories in Kajiado, Nairobi and Machakos
counties.
The new public-private partnership strategy
negates the National Housing Corporation initiative which has seen
houses for middle level civil servants in various parts of the country
built.
If successful, the project targeting the
working low income earners in major towns could reduce the emergence of
unplanned housing structures that continue to cause death and
destruction of private properties.
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