NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 29 – The Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) in partnership with Reall organised East Africa’s Inaugural Sustainable and Affordable Housing Workshop centred on unlocking Green Affordable Housing Finance.
The exclusive workshop, “A Call to Action: Unlocking Financing Opportunities for green affordable housing for the Kenyan Market” was held Wednesday, where key players in the built environment were contributing and unlocking opportunities with a clear road map in next steps to enable implementation.
The built environment, especially the affordable housing market globally, is beginning to attract and gain the much-needed attention for its critical role in addressing the global climate crisis and delivering on housing goals.
Affordable housing is a key route to both climate mitigation, through reducing emissions, and to resilience, preparing communities for a changing climate reality.
Speaking at the workshop Nasra Nanda CEO KGBS applauded the move to have the workshop because this would help build a road map for green affordable housing whether it private or public led.
“Kenya has shown commitment and is a leader in decarbonizing the built environment. The urban agenda of the built environment must be in every discussion that touches on government and financiers’ perspective,” she said.
The workshop focused on the role and potential of guarantees to unlock local lending for green-certified affordable housing construction and related offtake, targeting previously unreached groups under the Green Affordable Housing Finance (GAHF) framework and IFC EDGE’s Green Certification Programme.
The Governance and External Affairs Director, Reall and Team Lead for Green Affordable Housing
Finance Lucy Livesley said “There is a growing volume of climate finance globally that is looking for a home and guarantees have a massive potential and are currently underutilized.”
Reall is currently piloting Green Affordable Housing Finance (GAHF), an instrument designed to unlock a minimum of $400m over 15 years.
GAHF employs an enabling environment facility and a guarantee facility to incentivize and de-risk lending by local banks for the construction of green affordable homes and mortgages targeting previously unreached customers.
The workshop comes at a critical time when current challenges facing public and private residential construction are increasingly more complex and systemic, and this urgently requires a cohesive multi stakeholder response from the private, not-for-profit and state sectors.
This workshop brings the people and skills together who can and must respond to the critical housing needs of our population through affordable and sustainable solutions, with the understanding that unlocking finance is key in unlocking and delivering Kenya’s affordable housing agenda.
The Sustainable and Affordable Housing Workshop is a vital step towards mobilising sustainable finance and fostering partnerships within the built environment.
This aligns seamlessly with the Kenya Green Building Society’s commitment to not just leading the Green Buildings initiative, but also contributing to the broader goals of Sustainable Urbanisation and Affordable Housing, which is critical for the African continent, and a key agenda for H.E President Ruto.
The workshop featured key industry players shaping the agenda including the IFC, Centre for Affordable Housing, Reall, Kenya Green Building Society, the Architectural Association of Kenya, the Kenya Property Developers Association, the Kenya Bankers Association and other key market players.
