Property index, data centre to streamline housing growth

By Morris Aron

After a tumultuous 2011 that climaxed with wrong signals being sent on the sanctity of title deeds following the Syokimau demolitions, property dealers will this year breath a sigh of relief following plans to launch a comprehensive property index.

According to sources at both the ministry of Lands and Housing, plans are at an advanced stage to launch a countrywide property index and a property data centre for investors, developers and buyers to access information required before buying or selling property.

HassConsult, a property company, says the index will be the upgraded version of the current Hass Property Index.

To achieve this feat, ministry of Lands, which is the custodian of all property transactions in the country and the ministry of Housing are working on a data sharing arrangement that will result in a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all information on property costing, pricing, selling trends in the country.

"The comprehensive property index will be one of a kind in the world as it will offer buyers, sellers, investors and anybody dealing in property trends in asking and selling prices and returns on the same graph," said Nathan Luesby, a consultant at HassConsult.

PROPERTY DEALERS

"For the first time in Kenya, any investor, buyer, or seller will be able to get all the information they need on trends in the property sector and make informed decisions in the process averting the ad havoc investment that is based on hearsay and speculation."

According to Tirop Kosgey, the PS at the ministry of Housing, the comprehensive countrywide property index and data centre is what investors and property dealers have been lacking to make choices on investment in real estate.

"Investors, buyers and sellers have for a long time been left to grope in the dark and base their decisions on opinions of one or two property specialists, something that has not always proved to be the best of approaches," said Kosgey.

"With such a tool, the country’s property scene will only be equated to that of South Africa in the continent and at par with any developed economies in as far as information on the real estate sector is concerned."

It is understood Dorothy Angote, the PS at the ministry of Lands has instructed the Commissioner of Lands, the Director of Administration and the Head of ICT to urgently convene a meeting this week to explore the modalities of the data sharing arrangement.

The arrangement — which is understood to have the blessings of Joseph Kinyua, Treasury PS — will undergo a test phase with Nairobi as the epicentre as to how best to capture the data = before being replicated across the country.

The data will then be analysed by a team of statisticians and economics experts some drawn from the UK and presented as pricing, selling, buying and returns information trends.

The successful implementation of the project will come as a first for Kenya as many financing plans for grand scale housing projects have failed to take off due to the unavailability of data for investors on the actual trends on returns.

HOUSING POLICY

In addition, plans to have the first Real Estate Investment Trust, a special purpose vehicle, listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange will hinge a lot on the availability of accurate data.

"The statistics we are using now to guide policy decisions are outdated, and consequently, there is a need for a more up to date data," said Sakina Hassanali, business development manager at HassConsult.

The move to launch the first comprehensive property index comes at a time when the ministry of Housing has embarked on a nationwide housing census to determine the actual statistics on housing to guide housing policy going forwards.

Plans for a national housing census to document the true level of demand, supply, shortage and housing needs in the country came alive late last year following the launch of the concept paper for the survey .

"The data from this exercise will be vital in policy formulation in as far as addressing housing concerns are concerned," said Kosgey.

The survey, which will be conducted countrywide, will seek to fill data gaps on key issues such as what is needed to put up a house, why rent or own a house, income spend on housing, financing among other trends.

In addition, the data will guide future Government policies in addressing the shortage in affordable housing.

Most developers welcomed the debate over the policies that would encourage the use of new building technology.

Moreover, they say there is need for comprehensive and accurate data that paints the correct picture of housing supply, attracts investments and drives appropriate policies.