By Kenya Engineer
Hot News!
A British investor, Mr Ian Henderson, through his company Superior Homes Kenya, is developing a medium cost housing estate at Stoney Athi, 30 km from Nairobi. He plans to build 1,550 three-bedroom bungalows on a 500 acre plot purchased last year from East African Portland Cement at a cost of Shs 140 million. The development will be known as Green Park Stoney Athi.
Superior Homes plan to sink $100 million into the project and are targeting Kenya's middle class, the niche market largely ignored by local housing companies. Each unit will be on a one-sixth acre plot and will cost about Sh 3.2 million.
The government, in an effort to encourage more Kenyans to buy houses, raised the tax relief for homeowners from Sh 100,000 to Shs 150,000 in last year's budget. House builders also got a boost when infrastructural projects were exempted from investment tax.
The houses will be built at the rate of 90 per month. Superior Homes have engaged a project team of lead consultants/architects Young & Gault, local architects Adventis Limited, Engineering Services Consultant Matrix Engineer ing Consultants and Quantity Surveyors Barker & Barton.
The houses will be arranged in clusters of 200 fenced units with one controlled entry and exit. A second phase of houses will include semi-detached maisonettes, detached villas and apartments. They will be built in concrete reinforced with mesh and will be poured in pre-formed aluminium forms at the rate of one house per day for each set
of formwork. The formwork is manufactured by Wall-Ties & Forms Inc, of Kansas, USA who specialise in manufacturing concrete forming systems.
In addition to the necessary infrastructure, the estate will have in-built schools, schools and recreational facilities. Six boreholes have been sunk on site for water supplies for the estate and sewage will be pumped to the outfall sewer from EPZ Athi River.
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