Young people have been encouraged to take advantage 105 per cent Own Your Own Home (105OYOH) provided by Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) in a partnership with KOTO Housing and Bamburi Cement. The home package is meant to to sensitize its bank customers about the offering.
In addition it will entail streamlining of processes to reduce the time taken before one can own the property, lower overall costs and creating value addition by signing strategic partnerships to give CBA customers more value.
“The journey towards home and property ownership in Kenya has always been long, tedious, expensive and often laden with uncertainties. These factors, singularly and combined, are enough to discourage one from investing in a home despite having the requisite income to enable them realize this noble dream,”
said Jeremy Ngunze, Chief Executive Officer, CBA Kenya.
The partnership with KOTO Housing allows customers to construct homes slowly from scratch with lower budgets. The partnership is from sh500,000 to sh6 million. A one bedroom house can be constructed in such a way that in future it can be expanded to more bedrooms, should be owner wish to.
“KOTO Housing Kenya brings to the table a disruption in the home ownership narrative. We use the more affordable light weight panels to build the most affordable permanent homes in Kenya within 30 days. But more importantly, is that with KOTO homes you can start by building one room, move in, and then build the other rooms over time,”
said Moses Nderitu, Chief Executive Officer, KOTO Housing Kenya Ltd.
KOTO houses can be built from between 30 days to 45 days, making it fast for potential customers. The houses can also be built anywhere in the country.
The current properties market consists of 24,500 mortgages valued at sh203 Billion. The number of houses being built are less than 50,000 against a current annual demand of 240,000 houses per year for a population of more than 40 million people, a majority of whom aspire to own their homes.
Bamburi Cement will on the other hand offer architectural drawings, bills of quantities/schedule of materials, on-site technical support and access to quality building materials through its partner outlets for the construction of homes. The project will be driven through its Maskani housing plan which has a home cost ranging from sh500,000 for a single room unit, to 4-bedroom maisonettes going from sh4.5 million.
“The main assurance we give customers is peace of mind as they go on about their home ownership journey. We step into the void that has been left by the lack of honest and well skilled supervisors and other professionals to ensure that your journey is stress-free. We also give customers access to cost effective materials through our network of distributors across the country,”
said Susan Maingi, Director of Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainable Development, Bamburi Cement.
While Own Your Own Home plan favors people who already have land, customers can also take credit to buy the land, then go for the financing. In addition, a customer can also consider buying an already built home.
Young people are particularly encouraged to take up the facility because the maximum mortgage repayment is 25 years. The interest rate being awarded ranges from 15 per cent to 19 per cent depending on the age and ability to repay. Credit rating will form a core consideration on the interest rate using data from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).
For young people, it is therefore cheaper to take the facility unlike the old who will pay steeper interest rates for a short time because of their life span.
Koto really offers reliable and affordable technology with their EPS panels just hope CBA keeps their financing at affordable rates not to put off potential buyers.