Advancing Green, Affordable Homes in Kenya: Insights from Reall’s Climate Engagement

In early April, Reall’s Programme Lead – Climate Advocacy and Green Buildings, Clare Ollerenshaw, travelled to Nairobi to support Reall’s work in building and increasing access to green, resilient and affordable homes in Kenya. Reall has 35 years plus experience in this space across Africa and Asia, with Kenya being a focus country for the organisation. Kenya’s affordable housing deficit is growing, being quantified as at least 200,000 homes a year. 

The focus of the visit was to progress discussions with key stakeholders from across the housing ecosystem with a particular focus on embedding climate mitigation and resilience measures into projects and approaches. Stakeholders engaged during the visit included banks (Shelter Afrique, Trade and Development Bank, Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company), developers (Zima Homes and Kwangu Kwako), financial innovation organisation FSD Kenya and development organisations including UN Habitat and Habitat for Humanity.  

A key event during the week was the Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) Affordable Housing Roundtable. Held at Workable (East Africa’s first green EDGE certified workspace), organisations were represented from across the affordable housing supply chain – from architects and designers, product manufacturers, developers to banks and funders. Led by the Hon. Nasra Nanda, the Kenya Green Building Society creates opportunities for change every day within the built environment sector and in affordable housing in particular. Reall have been working closely with the Building Society for some time, focussing on building an enabling environment for the affordable housing ecosystem. Government was represented at the roundtable with the Housing Secretary, Hon Said Athman attending.  

KGBS Roundtable

The key takeaways from the visit were: 

• The challenges of affordability  

Throughout the meetings attended, there were regular comments about the cost of green construction, with figures shared on an increase in upfront costs for ‘green’ between 5 – 16% of total costs as compared to traditional build homes. Whilst some elements of greening affordable housing require funding upfront, for example solar panels, there are some approaches that are low if not no cost – for example the orientation and design of homes to make the most of natural ventilation. This is a key area of exploration for Reall and we’d welcome other partners contributions on this topic.  

• Joining up the finance offer for green, affordable homes through supply and demand sides 

There are an increasing number of green mortgage offers available in the Kenyan market. Unfortunately, they are still out of reach for some underserved members of Kenya’s communities. At Reall, our Green Affordable Housing Finance (GAHF) Programme aims to derisk the use of these mortgages and other finance products by offering a guarantee to the bank if the homeowner defaults on their monthly payment. The programme hopes to use a similar approach for developers so that banks are guaranteed their return should a developer be unable to make a repayment. We are currently looking to move from feasibility to a pilot phase with the programme. 

Reall’s team presenting our GAHF initiative at KGBS Roundtable

• Creating an enabling environment  

The day after the Roundtable event, Reall supported (via the Happold Foundation) EDGE Expert training for 20 sub national and national government representatives facilitated by KGBS. IFC EDGE is an important environmental standard for buildings. There was much interest and excitement from participants to be able to be trained in green building approaches. Reall aims through the Green Affordable Housing Finance Programme to facilitate more opportunities to support the developing affordable homes ecosystem in Kenya.  

EDGE training from KGBS

• New legislation and guidelines  

In 2024, the Government of Kenya published an updated mandatory national building code setting out the clear requirements for the building sector to work within. The National Construction Authority are offering training and sensitisation to the new building code going forward. At a similar time, the State Department of the Government published Affordable Housing Green Building Guidelines setting out a whole range of affordable housing typologies, variables for climate adaptation, natural ventilation, material selection and resource efficiency. There are challenges with monitoring and enforcement of legislation and adoption of guidelines but it’s a really important step in the right direction for the construction sector in the country.  

• Knowledge share and experience 

There is a lot of knowledge and experience being gathered in the Kenyan affordable housing ecosystem, much of which was showed cased at the Roundtable event.  For example, Zima Homes, a green, affordable housing development in the upcoming Wangige area of Nairobi, supported by Reall, and founded by Reall team member Etta Madete. Zima Homes is EDGE certified and planned with access to transport, schools, health clinics and local market in mind.  Also, Kwango Kwako, an organisation that benefited from an initial investment from Reall, have developed a precast concrete building system to reduce the risk of fire in more informal settlements. With every development there’s experience gained, and it would be a very positive move to see that knowledge captured for the benefit of future projects.  

Conclusion 

Kenya’s green, affordable housing ecosystem is growing, supported by champions such as Hon. Nasra Nanda, progressive developers, and a forward-thinking financial sector. However, scaling delivery and ensuring access to finance for underserved communities remains a priority. Reall is proud to play a collaborative role in shaping the green, affordable homes sector – developing innovative finance products, supporting policy adoption, and working with a wide range of partners to deliver sustainable homes at scale.  

Special thanks to Reall colleagues Joy Wachira, who leads the GAHF programme, and Etta Madete, who oversees affordable housing portfolios across Africa and Asia, for their invaluable support during the visit. 

 Written by Reall’s Programme Lead – Climate Advocacy and Green Buildings, Clare Ollerenshaw