We’ll sell you a shell of a house, finish it when you get cash

To help aspiring home owners who do not have all the cash required to buy or build a home, a Mombasa-based real estate firm has come up with a project where it will sell partially built homes and leave the rest to the buyers to complete in their own time.

“Once you have built the core structure of the house you can actually move in and finish it, depending on how much money you get. This is common among Kenyans who, rather than continue paying rent for another house, would rather move in and finish it while living in it,” says Dr Ben Mutuku, the chief executive officer of Goldwyne Consult.

He says the company has set aside an eighth of an acre at Shanzu, off the Mombasa-Malindi Road, and is finalising the approvals for a six-storey flat that will comprise bedsitters, as well as and one- and two-bedroom apartments.

“We have not decided how many units we are going to allocate for each type but this will be dictated by the customers’ needs. You might find that clients prefer bedsitters to the one- or two-bedroom units,” he says.

He says a one-bedroom apartment will go for Sh2.5 million; a quarter of an acre in the area costs Sh25 million. After the Central Bank of Kenya capped interest rates in 2016, banks introduced stringent conditions for issuing loans, which locked out most people seeking mortgages.

“There are very few people getting mortgages at the moment, and accessing enough capital to buy a house is the main problem. That is why I came up with this concept,” Dr Mutuku says.

He adds that the beauty of the idea is that it allows those who don’t have enough money but want to buy a house to secure it with the little they have, move in, and complete it later.

“We will partner with the owners so that we do the finishing for them but that is voluntary. Besides, once the transaction is complete, the new owner is given a title deed which they can use to secure a loan,” he says.

“You will be surprised that we have received inquiries and people are excited about the idea, especially regarding title ownership,” Dr Mutuku adds. Meanwhile, investors in real estate are keen to cash in on county housing projects expected to be rolled out soon.

As part of its efforts to build 500,000 housing units annually, the government has chosen 35 contractors to carry out a pilot project to fast-track their delivery. Phase one of the project entails building 8,200 housing units in Mavoko, Machakos County.

MySpace Properties Ltd Chief Executive Officer Mwenda Thuranira told DN2 the company was seeking ways to partner with the counties in their housing projects.

“The devolved units are keen on building houses, not just for their workers but also for investment,” Mr Thuranira said, adding that the company was in talks with Nyamira, Isiolo, Kisii, Meru and Mandera counties, and had also sent proposals to Nakuru, Kitui and Homa Bay.

“Besides technical and professional consultancy, we are also looking at how the projects can be funded through public private partnerships,” he said. Notably, only a few of the first county governments built their headquarters. However, the new governors have promised to improve residents’ lives by providing affordable housing.

“This year is quite promising because in the past two weeks, for instance, we have closed four deals on land, rental space and housing that had stalled for three years. We could say the light at the end of the tunnel is not that of an oncoming train but of the sun,” he enthused.