The African continent is booming. Alongside the strong economic growth rates registered in the past decades, empirical evidence has shown that the African middle class has been growing too. According to recent research by the African Development Bank, the continent’s middle class has reached 34.3% of the population in 2010, up from 26.2% in 1980 (AfDB 2011). In Kenya, it encompasses 44.9% of the population. This phenomenon has been accompanied by rapid urbanization and strong growth in consumption expenditure and demand for certain types of goods and services. Housing demand has not, and will not, remain idle to these changes.

As the middle class grows, so do cities that today host one out of four Africans. UN-Habitat estimates that African cities become home to over 40,000 people every day (UN-Habitat 2011). The map shows projected growth rates of urban agglomerations across the world. Most of the world’s largest cities with population growth rates above 5% are in Africa. Such trends foresee immense strains on affordable urban housing and exert a strong push on demand for it.