Careful, don’t end up with a white elephant

The country is littered with half-built houses that the owners could not finish because they either did not plan well or encountered unforeseen financial challenges, writes PAUL KARIUKI

Daniel Muiga lives in an almost complete brick house. He says he was not able to complete the four-roomed house with a slanting roof, because of prohibitive construction costs.

Ordinarily, the house would have taken less than three months to build and occupy but it took Muiga, an electronics technician, well over a year to get the construction to the level where he could occupy the house.

The irregular nature of his income wouldn’t qualify him for a bank loan, especially when the business is low.

“The process had been slow and a little costly. Nevertheless, the house has materialised as per my expectations,” he says.

He is now looking for money for the ceiling, painting, concrete fencing, making an iron gate and connecting to the main power grid. He has cut down the cost of wiring because of his knowledge on electricity.

So far, he has spent a total of Sh700,000, including Sh250,000 spent on acquiring the plot on which the building stands. Some experts say the costs could have been lower had he first purchased materials beforehand rather than the expensive “as-need-arises” method.

Expensive

The “as-need-arises” method is expensive because of inflation, which saw the costs of materials go up slightly, transportation and the prolonged building period, which at times had to slow down owing to rainy weather.

Samuel Kimuhu’s house is in the second year of construction. He has only managed to put up trusses on the six-bedroom, self-contained house and applied oil preservatives.

He doesn’t know when he will complete or how soon he will hammer on the first piece of red galvanised iron sheet. There are windows and doors still to make, first casting and final plumbing as well as interior panelling still to consider.

“When I started building, critics told me it would take years to complete. This was after I was laid off from a lucrative job with a private firm and found myself jobless,” says the father of five.

He, however, managed to get some money from his public service vehicle and from part of his savings and loan taken. This enabled him to start the construction process.

What is holding the 45-year-old man from actualising his dream of being a proud homeowner is not lack of self-will in completing the project.

He is currently servicing the loan he took as well as educating his children. This has put a strain on the construction. He plans to clear the loan first and apply for a fresh one and hopefully occupy the house by next year.

The saving grace is that he took the loan from a Sacco, which has friendly repayment rates compared to what a commercial bank would have charged him.

His case mirrors the plight of many would-be homeowners who are struggling to put up their own houses while at the same time servicing a loan.

Should they default, their movable assets could be auctioned, thus curtailing their dream of owning a house.

Like these two, many homebuilders launch the construction of their own houses with great fanfare, only for the projects to stall indefinitely, mainly because of lack of funding.

If you take a walk around different parts of the country, you will see half-built houses, with some overrun by weeds.

You will also probably see half-made brick houses with the rest of walls comprising mabati or timber. Some of the unfinished brick houses sometimes lack sound architectural integrity and look like they could crumble down any time.

One room at a time

But not all cases are the same. For instance, David Muchai had his house completed one room at a time and moving in after the initial skeleton was put up.

It had taken him close to three years, with costs still rising. He is yet to put the ceilings, do the interior and exterior paintings as well as construct the porch.

The semi-permanent house he called home for years stands where the porch should be and there are other installations and fittings to go for the over 50-years-old dairy farmer in Nakuru County.

The proceeds from his dairy products go towards educating two of his last children — one in second year at a local public university and the other one is in high school.

He saves part of proceeds to complete the house, which has so far gobbled up more money than he had thought.

“A house, whether put up fast or slowly, comes with hidden or additional costs to the builder,” he says, drawing from his experience.

What matters in the end, he observes, is the satisfaction the homeowner derives from seeing the fruition of his efforts.

One can comfortably sit back and have that satisfying feeling if the project ended well. On the other hand, one can end up grieving if the project was deemed financially unwise.

Costly undertaking

According to these three homeowners and others interviewed, it is costlier nowadays for many to realise the dream of being a homeowner.

It doesn’t help when land is fragmented to handkerchief-size portions with such small plots way beyond the purchasing powers of many.

That is why those in the lower income brackets resort to chamas to pool resources to purchase land and subdivide it to their members, leaving each individual with the burden of putting up a house on own.

Lack of competition in the building and construction industry has also not helped matters as dominant players dictate prices, thus pushing up construction costs.

The ban on forest products and logging without offering alternatives to cheap timber has also seen some employ substandard and weak beams as durable ones are costlier.

And the same houses made by different fundis like in the case of Muchai may be haphazardly done since each fundi comes with different levels of expertise.

Muchai confesses to have employed “manageable” jua kali fundis as going for professionals would have cost more. In the long run, unprofessionally done houses will be more costly.

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