Players are calling for measures that will cushion them against recurrent effects of politicking. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Director Sweethomes Management Ltd Mututa Kisinga said trouble started before last year’s general elections whose ripple effects have persisted to date with a good number of companies struggling to service their credit facilities.
- Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows construction activities grew at the slowest pace in six years in the July-September period at 4.9 per cent compared with 7.8 per cent a year earlier.
- The slowdown was evident with cement consumption dipping by 13.09 per cent year-on-year to 1,408,566 metric tonnes in the three months to September 2017.
- The sector is, however, set for a rebound buoyed by State’s affordable housing plan, relative political certainty and optimism over review of a cap on loan charges, developers have forecast.
Investors in real estate now want the government to come up with
a lasting solution to the country’s macroeconomics to cushion them
against losses that they incur every other election year.
They
have blamed politics for the poor show last year lamenting how the
continuous chest thumping by the big parties had negatively impacted on
cash flow complicating the business environment, warning of job losses
if drastic measures are not instituted.
Director
Sweethomes Management Ltd Mututa Kisinga said trouble started before
last year’s general elections whose ripple effects have persisted to
date with a good number of companies struggling to service their credit
facilities.
“The business environment is becoming
unbearable to many of us and indeed if the problem persists many more
Kenyans will lose jobs as local investors are badly struggling;
businesses are closing down as fear of losing huge investments is
becoming real to many.
“Investors now feel the pain of paying their bills and most
properties constructed through loans face auction by banks,” said Mr
Kisinga in Nairobi last week. He said the troubled economic times will
likely scare away investors from other parts of the world interested in
the huge market in Kenya, saying the tough political climate has
affected cash flow.
Mr Kisinga said the real estate
sector got a beating last year where they managed to sell only a single
apartment between September and December. The property management
company has interests in Kajiado, Machakos and Nairobi counties.
Data
from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows construction
activities grew at the slowest pace in six years in the July-September
period at 4.9 per cent compared with 7.8 per cent a year earlier.
The
slowdown was evident with cement consumption dipping by 13.09 per cent
year-on-year to 1,408,566 metric tonnes in the three months to September
2017.
The sector is, however, set for a rebound buoyed
by State’s affordable housing plan, relative political certainty and
optimism over review of a cap on loan charges, developers have forecast.
Organisers
of the annual East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) said real estate
investors are “energised” by the State’s plan to give incentives for
construction of up to a million residential housing units by 2022 at
Sh2.3 trillion.
“Kenya is once again at the top of
investors and developers lists of attractive investment destinations.
We’re hearing a lot of positive news from our stakeholders, and we
expect some eye-catching announcements at the EAPI in April,” EAPI
Summit’s managing director Kfir Rusin said in a statement.
“East
Africa continues to remain attractive due to increasing urbanisation
and consumerism, private equity investment, the maturing state of the
market, as well as ongoing infrastructure improvements,” said Rusin.
At
the same time, Uhuru Kenyatta’s final term pledge to deliver two
million houses under a public-private partnership arrangement could
unlock fresh impetus for low cost housing development.
The
government’s plans is to provide free public land delivered to private
developers to build affordable units within urban centres for sale to
low-income earners for as low as Sh1 million to Sh1.5 million.
The
planned development has seen 60 companies among them NSSF tender bids
for the project where emphasis has been placed on application of
affordable alternative building technologies for the pilot 8,000 housing
units project to be implemented at a 55 acre public plot at Mavoko
Subcounty.
Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban
Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said they were currently
scrutinising the bids received.
“We shall soon
announce winners of Kenya’s first Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
housing project, which will help us establish a mass housing production
model to be rolled out on a national scale,” he said.
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