NAIROBI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is considering offering a number of incentives to spur the development of low-cost housing units, a government official said on Saturday.
Charles Hinga Mwaura, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, said in Nairobi that the real estate sector has concentrated on the high-income housing segment due to enormous returns from investments.
"In order to spur development of more low-income housing units, the government has set aside 7,500 acres of serviced land for property developers to construct affordable housing units," Mwaura said.
He said the incentives are meant to overcome the systematic problems that have made the construction sector spurn the affordable housing category.
Other incentives include a 15-percent tax relief for taxpayers who purchase houses under the affordable housing scheme.
Government data indicates that the national housing demand stands at 250,000 units annually with 80,000 for high-income and 170,000 for low-income households.
However, Mwaura said that the real estate industry constructs on average 49,000 housing units for the rich and only 1,000 units were targeted at the low-income segment of the population.
"This has lead to the development of informal settlements as the poor cannot find affordable decent houses," he added.
The PS said Kenya has one of the highest costs of land in Africa and as a result real estate developers tend to concentrate on constructing expensive houses in order to make returns on their incentives.
