Boma Yangu: 270,000 Kenyans Register for Cheap Gov't Houses

At least 270,000 Kenyans have registered on Boma Yangu, an online portal that allows people to apply for homes that will be built under the government’s affordable housing scheme.

Out of those who have registered for cheap houses, about 14,800 of them are already making contributions, according to Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga.

This week, PS Hinga revealed that the construction of the first batch of housing units in Nairobi’s Ngara Estate is complete and will be issued to at least 60 Kenyans who have paid up 12.5 percent of the total value of the units they are seeking to purchase.

To qualify for allocation, contributors must have paid at least 12.5 percent of the unit value by the time of handover. 

In the Ngara project, a Chinese contractor is putting up a total of 1,370 housing units at a cost of Sh5 billion.
“The houses are complete, I have a completion certificate but the mechanism of transferring them is being finalized to pave way for the sale because we are holding all these houses on one title,” said PS Hinga.

“We’re currently trying to fine-tune and operationalize the process of how to hive out 228 sectional titles for apartment owners. Kenyans have been contributing as little as Sh300 per month.”

The balance of 87.5 percent of the value of the units for those taking mortgages will be funded by a financier that would charge a fee against the title of the house, PS Hinga said.

“So we cannot give them keys and not give them a title,” said Hinga.

There are three ways in which Kenyans can get the houses namely; cash, mortgage, and tenant purchase. To be eligible for allocation, one is required to have registered with the Boma Yangu housing fund.