The government will create a data-base of low-income households that are eligible for subsidised housing if proposed changes to the law are adopted.
Under the Housing (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Treasury will also provide wider
incentives for companies that invest in low-cost housing.
“The Bill gives the Cabinet secretary responsible for Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet secretary for Finance, power to develop guidelines and incentives to investors including tax waivers in order to promote the construction of low cost housing,” writes Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba in amemorandum accompanying the Bill.
The proposed database to be hosted by National Housing Corporation will be updated yearly.
In creating the database, Kenya will be walking a well trodden path. Developed countries such as the United States and Germany subsidise housing for households below
certain income thresholds. Kenya faces a crisis in the housing sector with the World Bank showing that there is a deficit of homes while new houses are often beyond the
reach of the poor. Since 2000, the World Bank
says, the price of the cheapest home in Nairobi has grown from Sh500,000 to the current Sh4 million.
Source; Business Daily
