Kenya’s leading real estate company, Mi Vida Homes, is embarking on a 20-month affordable housing project at Garden City in partnership with International Housing Solutions (IHS), a private equity fund manager investing in green affordable housing across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Under the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approvals, IHS Kenya Fund will acquire two hundred environmentally friendly residential units within the developed dubbed ‘237 Garden City’ situated in the Garden City mixed-use masterplan along the Thika Road Superhighway.
IHS Kenya Managing Director-Capital and Investor Relations, Peter Mayavi said that the purchase agreement will guarantee Mi Vida Homes a ready market for units in its Garden City affordable housing project. This guarantee, in effect, will boost the confidence of both the developers and other stakeholders in delivering timely, environmentally friendly, and high-quality housing units.
“IHS’s agreement with Mi Vida Homes is timely because Kenya has a pressing need for housing that is not only affordable but offers the quality that ensures users get a dignified living. A key way of ensuring this goal is removing the market risk for developer partners because this will now catalyze the development of large-scale projects such as 237.”
The units in the 237 development are a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and sit on a 48-acre parcel of land.
At a press briefing in Nairobi on Thursday, the two entities indicated that the latest investment targets lower-tier employees earning up to Ksh150,000 monthly salary and have as low as Ksh40,000 to spend on housing every month.
Mi Vida Homes CEO Samuel Kariuki said that the purchase agreement, at a fixed price, has enabled the developer to mitigate market risk, which is a challenge to scaling for the wider housing market.
‘Through this partnership with IHS, Mi Vida Homes has a guaranteed market for the apartments we are building. Our main goal is to guarantee timely delivery and sustainability at every stage of the project, including planning, building, and project management,” commented Mr. Kariuki.
IHS is additionally partnering with other financial institutions, development financiers, investors, land owners, and developers to increase the stock of quality, affordable green housing in the Kenyan market.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, IHS Capital and Investor Managing Director Peter Mayavi noted that the organisation was registered as a fund in June of 2021 and has worked with Mi Vida since.
“(The deal) has taken a couple of years because when we came into this market, one of the ways we invest is to partner with developers and Mi Vida fit the criteria of partner developer we were looking for,” stated Mayavi
“We have raised about USD85 million to spend in Kenya and more investors are coming to the Kenyan fund. With that amount of money, we are looking at about 3,000 or 4,000 units.”
Within the next seven years, IHS intends to provide up to 4,000 affordable apartments for sale and rental.
To learn more about Mi Vida Homes affordable housing project, click here.
