In Kenya, particularly in Nairobi, the cost of housing is high mainly due to high bank interest rates and high land value appreciation.
See below for details on this
https://www.a4architect.com/2013/10/18/housing-costs-in-kenya-why-cost-of-acquiring-a-home-in-kenya-is-high/”
“https://www.a4architect.com/2013/07/12/7cost-of-housing-in-kenya-kitengela-vs-south-africa-594/”
Employees in formal employment can have the advantage of huge bank interest rate discounts.
With the huge bank interest rate discount, they can then stand to gain from lower housing costs than average.
On the issue of land, ingenuine methods to resolve this problem have been sought by a4architect.com in terms of pooling resources and sharing land.
The minimum land size permitted for subdivision under Kenyan laws is 1/8th acre. This land size is quite large for a single family considering many families are currently living in flats with no outdoor space at all.
With 2 or more people coming together to share a 1/8th acre plot, the spiralling land cost issue can be resolved since this makes land more affordable.
Employees in formal employment need to be as close to urban centres as possible so as to make it in time to and from work.
The solution to majority of employees is to rent houses close to urban centres e.g. Kikuyu,Kitengela, Ngong, Kiambu etc.
With their savings, they buy land in inaccessible places where they cant use it to live and effectively make it to and from work in time. This means the plots bought in far away places like Isinya, Kamulu,Joska, Juja farm, Kiserian pipeline, Limuru,Thika etc. are unusable for lving purposes hence the money used to purchase the plot not put into good use.
To resolve this, a4architect.com assists employees to buy expensive land near tows eg Kitengela, Syokimau, whereby an average of 2 people share a 1/8th plot and construct 2 separate houses for each owner. This gives alot of privacy and room for future expansion.
Ownership.
To enable 2 people to legally won a 1/8th acre title, these 2 will need to jointly purchase the land whereby both their names appear on the title deed or they both register a limited liability company which has 2 shares then each owns a share of the company.
A4architect.com will design 2 separate houses to the design requirement of each owner then this is taken to the local authority for approval. The ownership document then comprises of the house designs , describing how both owners should live together, similar to the sectional properties act which allows people to buy apartments , common around Nairobi neighbourhoods eg Lavington.
Estimated cost of construction and initial designs can be viewed here https://www.a4architect.com/house-designs/”
Forum.
Someone can start a discussion forum topic here
Someone can put their preferred area and preferred land budget eg Kitengela 1/8th acre selling for kes 2m.
Other interested people can then also register and reply to the posting saying they are interested. Once a quorum is reached, if its 2 people sharing a 1/8th plot, they can then go ahead and purchase the plot after due diligence.
a4arhitect.com will then design the 2 houses and submit the drawings to the local authority for approval.
After approval, a4architect will then advice the 2 land owners on how to choose a contractor to build.
After selection of a contractor, the bank laid procedures of disbursement fo construction funds to the contractor shall be used and a4architect.com will supervise the construction till completion.
Francis Gichuhi Kamau, Architect.
info@a4architect.com
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