A Singaporean real estate firm is building an 8,888-unit multibillion-shilling mixed-use development in Mavoko, Machakos County, on the outskirts of Nairobi, as it eyes a piece of the potentially lucrative low-cost housing market in Kenya.

Singapura Developers says the development, which will be known as Habitat Heights, will host residential units ranging from studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units on 26 blocks of 16-story apartments and 2 blocks of 20 stories.

Sitting on a 77-acre (31-hectare) piece of land in Lukenya Hills, off the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, Habitat Heights will be completed in seven phases, providing Mavoko a new KSh50 billion (US$498 million) estate. Phase one of the project, which got underway in December 2019, is planned to be ready in 18 months.

The development land is owned by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and had been reserved for a UN employees’ housing scheme, but the Kenyan government signed a memorandum with the intergovernmental organization to release the land for use for the State-backed affordable housing scheme.

Upon completion, Habitat Heights will comprise 972 one-bedroom units, 2,912 two-bedroom units, 4,368 three-bedroom units, 60 shops and other facilities. The prices for the houses have been set at KSh3.5 million (US$35,000) for a one-bedroom, KSh4.8 million (US$48,000) for a two-bedroom, and KSh5.8 million (US$58,000) for a three-bedroom. The project is funded by the United Nations through the Habitat Heights Company.

Singapura Developers identifies Kenya as a promising market for such developments thanks to the country’s fast expanding population of middle-income earners. “We see Kenya as a big market based on the growing middle-class and also a high number of expatriates,” says Singapura’s chief investments officer Mahesh SK.

Habitat Heights Company becomes the latest entrant to the State-backed affordable housing program, which seeks to build 500,000 homes countrywide in five years.

The scheme has attracted a host of foreign construction giants, including China State Construction Engineering, which is building 1,370 units in its Nairobi’s Park Road project. The company has already completed 228 houses.

Last week, Kenya’s Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said the government had signed deals with several British investors for the construction of 80,000 houses across the country.

The deals, which were signed the week of 20 January 2020 at the inaugural UK-Africa Investment Summit held in London, are a major boost for the affordable housing program, which has been struggling to attract large-scale investors.

“During the UK tour, we managed to get potential investors for 80,000 units, 30,000 of them under Nairobi Urban Renewal and 50,000 as rental units,” Hinga said. Under the scheme, the government plans to demolish old bungalows and replace them with high-rise apartments in Nairobi to deliver affordable houses to residents.

For more on this story, go to Construction Kenya.