Green Building Society woos stakeholders to affordable housing project

The Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) has affirmed its commitment towards unlocking the potential in Sustainable and Affordable Housing.

Green Affordable Housing

Speaking at East Africa’s Inaugural Sustainable and Affordable Housing workship which was made possible in partnership with Reall, KGBS Chief Executive Nasra Nanda stressed the importance of enabling green affordable housing projects whether private or public led.

The workshop dubbed “A call to action, Unlocking Financing Opportunities for 
Green affordable housing for the Kenyan Market” was held in Nairobi where key players discussed the roadmap towards unlocking opportunities.

Ms Nanda further observed that the affordable housing market has attracted positive reviews for its role in addressing the global climate crisis and delivering on housing goals.

"Affordable housing is a key route to climate mitigation, through reducing emissions, and to resilience, preparing communities for a changing climate reality,” she said.

“Kenya has shown commitment and is a leader in decarbonizing the built environment. The urban agenda of the built environment must be in every discussion that touches on government and financiers’ perspective.” 

Unlock local lending

The meet further focused on the role and potential of guarantees to unlock local lending for green-certified affordable housing construction and related offtake, targeting previously unreached groups under the Green Affordable Housing Finance (GAHF) framework and IFC EDGE’s Green Certification Programme. 

The Governance & External Affairs Director, Reall and Team Lead for Green Affordable Housing Finance Lucy Livesley said “There’s a growing volume of climate finance globally that is looking for a home and guarantees have a massive potential and are currently underutilized.”

Reall is currently piloting the Green Affordable Housing Finance (GAHF) project which is an instrument designed to unlock a minimum of $400m (about Sh50 billion) over 15 years. 

GAHF employs both an enabling environment facility and a guarantee facility to incentivise and de-risk lending by local banks for the construction of green affordable homes and mortgages targeting previously unreached customers.

People and skills 

The workshop brings the people and skills together who can and must respond to the critical housing needs of our population through affordable and sustainable solutions, with the understanding that unlocking finance is key in delivering Kenya’s affordable housing agenda. 

Other key industry players shaping the agenda including the IFC, Centre for Affordable Housing, Reall, Kenya Green Building Society, the Architectural Association of Kenya, the Kenya Property Developers Association, the Kenya Bankers Association were in attendance.