Earning less than Sh150,000? Forget about mortgage

After visiting financial institutions at the recent Kenya Homes Expo at Nairobi's KICC, Ferdinand Mwongela concludes that, indeed, mortgage is still a rich man’s dream.

There has been an increase in the number of people taking out mortgages to buy or build houses. For example, in February this year, a Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) survey showed that as of June 2010, there were 15,049 mortgage loan accounts with outstanding mortgages standing at about Sh61.4 billion. This showed a growth from Sh19 billion only four years earlier, in 2006.

A house in Nairobi. Despite the increasing number of people taking mortgages, majority of people cannot even dream of a mortgage. Photo: Evans Habil