National

East African Community (EAC) ministers in charge of housing are set to meet with private sector real estate players in Nairobi in March to discuss strategies of attracting international capital and expanding housing supply in the region.

Conference spokesman Kizito Mokua said delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda will discuss strategies of increasing homeownership opportunities, adopting new construction technologies for higher quality and lower cost housing anchored on the East African common market principles.

“International investors and developers are now scouting for opportunities across the region in residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors both in the public and private sectors as East Africa becomes one market,” Mokua said in Nairobi on Monday.

He said ministers will lead country delegations made up of both public and private sector players representing operators, developers, financiers, investors, suppliers, professionals, investment promotion agencies, think thanks, among others from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

“Suppliers and professionals will discuss and offer solutions to the real estate space while investors and developers will gain access to critical market intelligence and identify opportunities, “ Mokua said.

The C-level delegates will on March 29-30 meeting take stock of the region’s real estate opportunities and create both public- private and private-private partnerships.

“Though leaders will also review cross border property development and cross border mortgages by discussing securities mobility and growing accessibility with new mortgage models. Security mobility is key so that for instance, you can use a Kenyan title to access funds in Uganda,” Mokua said.

The conference will also focus on new building technologies for affordable housing to cater for both middle and low income households to meet the supply side.

Kenya is said to have an accumulative 120,000 houses annually. Mokua said there will be a session dedicated to property developers to address their specific challenges whose cumulative effect translates to inflated housing costs.

“Managing property developers challenges, especially the credit, liquidity and execution risk as well as taxation and low income houses in the region is a key factor in affordable housing,” Mokua said. 
Xinhua