Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

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Document Type General
Publish Date 07/08/2004
Author Wafula Nabutola
Published By Wafula Nabutola
Edited By Arslan Hassan
Uncategorized

AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN KENYA

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Document Type: General
Publish Date: 2004
Primary Author: Wafula Nabutola
Edited By: Arsalan Hasan
Published By: Wafula Nabutola

Housing is a Human Right in as much as air and/or water. Like food, even those who cannot afford it need it perhaps much more than those who can, because the latter could be in it for the investment returns. By its nature housing represents a major investment requiring a substantial capital outlay. In the majority of housing projects, the developer whether as a corporate or individual has to recognize the time value concept of money? This raises the rate of interest to reflect the high Risk of lending. Kenya’s GDP at about USD 11 Billion is reasonably large but is not growing at the rate that would be classified as booming. More critical however is the distribution of the national income. It could easily be said that 10% of the population controls about 90% of the resources available. That is a constrained economy, overcrowded at the bottom and very sparse at the top. Nairobi occupies about 8% of Kenya’s total land surface but generates about 40% of the nation’s GDP. Nairobi has a population of about 4 Million people by day and 3 Million by night. Of these, 60% live in what can be referred to as informal settlements or slums.

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