Safaricom Pension Scheme’s Crystal Rivers opens in 2017

15/12/2016 : The Daily Nation ,DN2 page 2

• Safaricom pension scheme has announced that its Sh 4.2 billion mixed use development in Machakos county will officially open in May next year, the chairman of the scheme’s board, Mr Joseph Ogutu has announced
• Crystal rivers, which is located in Athi River, is an undertaking by the scheme’s 5,000 members. It is one of the projects planned with their Sh 7 billion war chest.
• It will provide 398 housing units for 2,000 people and shopping space for an average of 100,000 visitors daily.
• The mall, whose anchor tenant is Naivas supermarket, has also attracted  other brands to set up shop, including the Mater Hospital, Bata and the Java coffee house chain.
• The 200,000 square foot mall will comprise 100 shops, 1000 parking slots for shoppers, seven restaurants, a conference facility that will be operated by an international children’s park company.

Finally, Treasury clears loan for building Umoja Estate

15/12/2016 : The Daily Nation ,DN2 page 2

• A 31 year old city hall loan used to build Umoja Estate has finally been cleared, easing the pressure on taxpayers who have been repaying the debt for the last four years.
• The treasury, which has been repaying the loan after City Hall defaulted, has not factored in any monry to service the debt, indicating that the amount has been cleared,
• City Hall borrowed sh 212 million from USAid in 1985 to be paid at an interest of 8.5% per cent per year, with the treasury as the quarantor.
• The loan was to be repaid by 2014 but city hall defaulted, leaving the Treasury tp pay nearly Sh 2.5 billion as interest and the Principal amount.
• The City hall loan has been a constant feature in the Treasury’s debt repayments figures alongside those of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and Tana and Athi River Development Authority, which also defaulted, forcing the state, as guarantor, to step in.
• It remains to be seen whether the treasury will heed the controller of budget’s (CoB) call to recover the amounts from the two parastatals and city hall.

Best Western building high end flats in Nairobi

15/12/2016 : The Daily Nation ,DN2 page 2

• Global hospitality operator Best Western has opened its first high end serviced apartments in Africa in Nairobi to cater for Businessmen and for the Rich.
• Best western hotels and resorts senior vice president for international operations Suzi Yoder said the executive  residency is a new product in the hotel chain’s brands which provides longer term accommodation for business and leisure travellers.
• The one and two bedroom property on Riverside Drive in Nairobi’s Westlands is the chain’s third facility in the city.
• The five storey building has one and two bedroom apartments high speed internet access, a work area and daily house keeping services.
• The facility, development by the Fedha Group, has pushed by a notch higher the competition for serviced apartments as Best Western will recommend its own  facility to clients from across the 100 countries where it operates 4,100 outlets.

Nairobi top destination for shopping mall developers

15/12/2016 : The Daily Nation ,DN2 page 2

• Nairobi has become  sub – Saharan  for developers of shopping malls.
• A  report by property management firm Knight Frank  indicates that Nairobi has a  total shopping mall space of 391,000 square metres, with an additional 470,000 square metres in the pipeline.
• The report, titled 2016 shop Africa, listed Namibian capital Windhoek as the second biggest retail city with a floor  space of 260,000 square metres with Botswana’s capital Gaborone third with 247,000 sqm. Ugandan capital Kampala was ranked fourth with space measuring  182,000 sqm.
• The report, which covered 47 African countries, ranked Nairobi top by existing shopping centre floor space  and also with the biggest development pipeline.
• However, it did not include South Africa.

Building Approvals : In kiambu, you can pay online

15/12/2016 : The Daily Nation ,DN2 page 2

• Investors in Kiambu no longer have to wait for long periods to get construction – related  appprovals following the computerisation of these services as the William Kabogo led administartion moves to reform the system.
• Known as the Electronic Development Application management systems (e – DAMS), it is expected to increase efficiency and transparency since all construction related applications will now be done electronically through a customised online portal.
• Ms. Eunice Kaloki, the executive member in charge of land and planning in the county, said the Web -based system, which was developed in patnership with the World Bank, will reduce approval time and enhance the planning and inspection of workflow.
• Before the introduction of the system, it took months for an approval to go through, with documents sometimes disappearing, but with the system, it will take two to three days, with minimal chances of files getting lost.
• With the system, Ms Kaloki said, architects and planners will submit building proposals for evaluation and approval online.
• Payments will be made through an automated revenue collection system, meaning it will not be necessary for applications to visit the offices.
• Ms. Kaloki said the system will be used to issue development permit, profile ongoing  developments for inspection, support planning enforcement as well as data collection on inspections and archiving.
• The system automatically manages workflow to allow applications to be routed concurrently to thevarious technical evaluators, so there will be no backlog of applications. The gate keeping role of ensuring conformity with approved requirements will be easy since it will be at the click of a button.

Shelter Afrique, a housing development finance institution, has launched a competition dubbed “5,000 For 5,000 Homes” in a bid to boost affordable housing in Africa.

Cytonn Weekly  report No. 50

• Finland-based private equity firm Taaleri, through its Africa Fund, indicated an interest in increasing its investment in Kenya’s first Development Real Estate Investment Trust (D-REIT), the FRED-Commercial, which was issued by Fusion Capital on 20^th June 2016.
• The D-REIT issue was aimed at raising financing for a Kshs 3.7 bn Greenwood City project in Meru. The FRED-Commercial however achieved an undersubscription of 37.9%, raising Kshs 873.8 mn, below the 50.0% threshold required by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to list on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).
• The private equity firm remains optimistic about the potential of Kenya’s Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market as it looks to deepen its investment in East Africa.
• They remain optimistic that the factors leading to the undersubscription can be curbed as in other continents, for example, UK’s first REIT was introduced in the 1990s and faced undersubscription but later in 2000, the market absorbed it having appreciated its value as an investment asset class.
• Shelter Afrique, a housing development finance institution, has launched a competition dubbed “5,000 For 5,000 Homes,” which involves a design competition for eco-friendly and affordable housing concepts. The competition is expected to boost affordable housing in Africa and see the winners take home Kshs 10 mn. The competition aims to lead to the development of 5,000 dwelling units at a cost of not more than Kshs 500,000 per unit from the successful participant’s design. The objective of the competition is to:
• Stimulating innovative thinking on designs for sustainable and eco – friendly homes that can be produced at a capital cost of not more than Kshs 500,000, and,
• Spurring a discussion on bringing out affordable housing concepts for the rising urban population.
  • Shelter Afrique and its partners will support the financing for the development and completion of 5,000 units with the winning entry in agreed locations across Africa. Proposed designs will be characterized with the following key specifications;
  • One-bedroom dwelling unit with a plinth area of approximately 45 square meters, inclusive of a kitchen, bedroom, toilet and living area with an adequate lighting;
  • Adequate head room and floor to ceiling heights with possible options for natural ventilation;
  • Use of eco- friendly and light weight sustainable materials to achieve low construction cost, and;
  • An easy to replicate design;
• The competition is open to all the players in the housing sector including teams of designers, artists, architects and engineers among others. This move by Shelter Afrique, is consistent with the Kenyan government strategy to encourage development of low cost housing by offering various incentives such as The Finance Bill, 2016, which offers a 15.0% corporate tax relief to developers who put up at least 400 low-cost residential houses p.a. and the proposed removal of NEMA and NCA Levies.
• In cytonn’s view with the continued support of government and the finance institutions to developers, we remain optimistic that the housing deficit of 250,000 dwelling units, which majorly lies in the low-income sector will be addressed. However, given the high land prices, we don’t see how a housing unit in urban areas like Nairobi, which have the most need for affordable units, can be developed at a cost of just Kshs. 500,000 given the high cost of land.Read more