African Tenant Purchase Initiative
This is a rent-to-own initiative intended to bridge the housing shortfall that is evident in the country. Kenya has a house shortfall of 200,000 homes annually. This means that less than 1% of the total Kenyan population is home owners. Singapore has 94% of its population as home owners. This is astounding keeping in mind that Kenya and Singapore were at the same level economically at Kenya’s independence. The Real Estate sector in Kenyan as well the Government and Banks focus mainly on the middle class which, according to the statistics, is a very small percentage of the total population. And this is the reason why for the past 20 years, Kenya has only managed 23,000 successful mortgage uptakes.
We have critically analyzed the consumer behavior and the dynamics around how much a typical Kenyan in urban areas pays for rent and structured an affordable rent-and-purchase mechanism to enable the many eligible tenants to also turn into home-owners. Our proposition is to develop and manage an effective Tenant Purchase Scheme for the prospective buyers. Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCO) is a type of cooperative whose objective is to pool savings for the members and in turn provide them with credit facilities (UN-HABITAT, 2010). The general objective of SACCOs is to promote the economic interests and general welfare of its members.