KPDA Affordable Housing Conference

The Kenya Property Developers Association recently held their Inaugral Affordable Housing Conference. The event brought together various stakeholders from government and private sector to discuss the opportunities in affordable housing in Kenya. At the event, KPDA released their 2018 Affordable Housing Report.  According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey 2017, it is estimated that the current housing deficit stands at 2 million houses with nearly 61% of urban households living in slums. The deficit continues to rise due to constraints on the demand and the supply side.

According to the report, the affordable housing sector experiences several challenges. Among them is the fact that few urban centers have implementable urban development plans. This means developers have to incur an additional infrastructure costs when constructing. This was highlighted during one of the panel discussions moderated by Mary Chege.  “We cannot develop affordable housing in a vacuum. The systems in place should support it. And expanding roads is not the solution. Other forms of movement of people should also be explored,” said Eng Nathaniel Matalanga, the Honorary Secretary of Institution of Engineers of Kenya.

One of the other challenges developers face, as per the report, is high cost of construction. Construction finance loans are increasingly challenging for developers to obtain and so financing costs are included in the price when selling property. Another bottleneck is faced when it comes to registration. According to the 2017 Doing Business Survey, Kenya has a ranking of 121 out of 190 with respect to property registration. This inefficiency with the titling process is further complicated by devolution with different counties showing different levels of efficiency.

However, it is not all gloom and doom. There was discussion on some of the strategies that developers can adopt. Land joint ventures are one of the ways developers can increase returns and help land owners monetize their assets. Building smaller units can also help reduce the price of units while allowing developers to retain their margins. Another suggestion was incremental housing. The affordability of housing may be increased by making use of basic materials with the provision that home owners scan make improvements on the house over time. Finally, managing one’s cashflow is paramount. It is important to have a robust financial model at the onset of a development. We, at InVhestia, developed an online tool to assist with this. We have extensive experience working in the real estate space and have been involved in conducting financial viability assessments for various projects. Our web-based application appraises real estate projects and provides output that can be used in presentations for fundraising purposes. The platform is easy to use and gives you value for money. Try it for free at http://evaluate.invhestia.com/

You can read more about the KPDA Conference and report here

HEVA Fund Closes KES 90Million Investment

Thursday 21st June, 2018 goes down as the day HEVA Fund signed a cooperation agreement with the French Development Agency that will advance credit and technical assistance for creative industries in Kenya. InVhestia is pleased to have acted as advisor in the preparation of the fundraising documents and financial models for this transaction.

The project which is worth KES 90 Million will be used to offer support to businesses in Kenya and technical support to businesses based in the wider East African region. The creative economy enterprises that will benefit are those in four value chains: music and live events; fashion and apparel retail and manufacture; film and digital content; and gaming, e-sports and entertainment.

HEVA Fund previously commissioned our team to support the deployment of their Startup Fund, we were involved in their five stage evaluation process in the later due diligence and financial modelling stages, providing advisory services on businesses viability and deal structuring. The founder of Peperuka World – one of HEVA’s beneficiaries and whom we were commissioned to provide business support, spoke at the signing ceremony on the lasting impact of HEVA’s investment and support on her growth plans.

Kenya’s creative sector was estimated at about USD 2 billion in 2014. The sector contributes circa 5% to Kenya’s GDP and 4% to national employment. HEVA Fund has been in existence since 2013 and invests in the transformative social and economic potential of the creative economy.

As business advisory experts, we are glad to businesses quantify investment decisions by offering in-depth analysis through financial modelling. Through our fundraising services, we support high value businesses to make their investment proposition just right so that investors quickly see the value they have to offer. We are happy to have contributed to this successful and historic agreement which is part of a strategy to move KES 500 million into the creative sector over 4 years.

We believe this will contribute to the growth of dynamic, youth-led digital and creative enterprises as well as grow the East African cultural footprint in regional and international markets.