Equity firm turns guns on cheap housing

Migosi police houses building in Kisumu county which is currently under construction. Over 100 police from Kisumu will benefit from 180 million national government police housing project.

Consonance Investment Managers Ltd has acquired a stake in East Africa real estate firm Century Developments Ltd Group for an undisclosed fee.

The firm, through its maiden fund Consonance Kuramo Special Opportunities Fund I intends to pump in Sh20 billion in five years on education, affordable housing, industrial warehousing and healthcare sectors across East Africa and selected African markets.

“We will now accelerate the roll out of key real estate assets in the education and affordable housing sectors, starting with over 10,000 beds of purpose-built student accommodation and 7,500 units of affordable housing in Kenya,” said founder and Group CEO of Century Developments Group Dominic Kiarie.

The fund has been seeded by US private equity firm Kuramo Capital, a focus fund for a select group of institutional and high net-worth investors targeting sub-Saharan Africa with offices in Lagos and Nairobi.

Kuramo Capital roared its head last year when they made a tactical deal by acquiring 25 per cent stake of debt-riddled TransCentury with an equity injection of $20 million (Sh2 billion) when they were facing a possible default on their Sh8 billion bond.

Consumer finance

The firm has 21 investments across the continent in consumer-related products, energy, technology and consumer finance with a portfolio size of over Sh30 billion.

Nairobi based Century Developments offers the fund a focus on building affordable housing communities across East Africa.

The firms will retain Kiarie to facilitate the acceleration of the group’s pipeline of new investments as part of a planned total investment.

“The partnership with Consonance Kuramo marks an important milestone for Century Developments. It is a vindication of our real estate development and investments business model,” Kiarie said.

Century Developments’ focuses on the design, build and management of quality, safe and value for money purpose-built student accommodation for institutions of higher learning in the education sector.  

Consonance Kuramo Managing Director Mobolaji Adeoye said the deal will offer it exposure to a real estate development and investments business.

The firm will focus on key niche sectors of the property market across targeted markets in Africa, especially with a momentum in affordable housing.