In recognition of its established mandate to drive investment and transaction within the regional real estate industry, the East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) Summit on 10 & 11 April 2019 will harness its agenda setting platform to develop and deliver an Affordable Housing Investment Manifesto to the National Government.
According to EAPI’s Managing Director Kfir Rusin, the manifesto will help streamline private sector investment into Affordable Housing and provide a concrete mechanism for engagement with public sector leaders.
The development of the manifesto follows the endorsement of the Summit by the Affordable Housing Plan’s chief architect Charles Hinga Mwaura, the Principal Secretary, State Department of Housing & Urban Development earlier this month.
“In line with the Government’s Big 4 Agenda on Housing, we note that the EAPI Summit will provide a platform for the public and private sector to discuss new means of reducing the overall cost of doing business to create a more affordable and sustainable real estate sector,” said Mwaura in his official letter of endorsement.
Acknowledging Hinga’s confidence in the EAPI Summit,Rusin highlighted EAPI’s history of proving an annual industry platform to drive investment and formalization, which provides the necessary industry capital to develop a credible Manifesto.
“EAPI is the only platform with the industry capital and credibility to develop and present an Access to Affordable Housing Manifesto, which will be developed during EAPI 2019 to highlight challenges and solutions to private sector investment and participation in Affordable Housing,”confirmed Rusin.
And although the Kenyan Government’s Affordable Housing Plan is attracting interest from a wide variety of parties; the challenge has been to connect and identify projects to all stakeholders in the regional value chain, as Mwaura noted in his letter of endorsement.
“We look forward to this opportunity to showcase our existing and pipeline projects to potential business partners and to make our contribution in the delivery of government’s housing plan.”
EAPI Objectives
While the delivery of an Affordable Housing Manifesto is a significant objective of this year’s affordability focused forum; the summit will provide the working environment for industry leaders to work towards achieving the following strategic objectives in 2019:
- CONNECT INVESTOR CAPITAL (INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE EQUITY& INSTITUTIONAL) TO STATE-BACKED AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS;
- REDUCING THE COST OF CONSTRUCTION;
LOWERING THE COST OF CAPITAL;
- CREATING AN ENABLING FRAMEWORK & ENVIRONMENT FOR LARGE SCALE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT;
- BUILDING THE INVESTMENT CASE FOR ALTERNATIVE ASSET CLASSES AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING; AND
- UNLOCKING LAND FOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT.
Commenting on the industry’s need to work towards achieving affordability, Rusin said: “Understanding and setting objectives are key to driving investment and development of mass-scale affordable housing projects, and the number of new international development funds attending EAPI is proof that Kenya is well positioned to provide the affordable housing blueprint for the continent to follow.”
He added that “We are honoured to have the Ministry’s endorsement and look forward to working together in taking affordable housing from discussions and talk to actual transactions and physical deals. It’s clearly evident that the Affordable Housing Plan is attracting some of the world’s most serious investors and developers.”
Now in its sixth year, EAPI 2019 two-day real estate agenda setting platform will play host to the largest international and regional developers such as Echostone USA and South Africa’s International Housing Solutions who will present case studies on their mega Nigeria project and South Africa respectively to 500 + delegates. Additional noteworthy investors include the UK’s CDC, USA’s OPIC, The World Bank’s IFC amongst many others.
While this year’s theme: Driving Affordability through the Property Value Chain, has drawn inspiration from the Government’s Affordable Housing Plan, the two-day event will continue to cover all the major real estate asset classes in East Africa under the “lens of affordability,” ended Rusin.
