ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses housing provision and the urban poor in Kenya and also analyses approaches, trends and impacts of housing provision through private, public and self-help housing streams. The government is working on developing the mortgage market to partially fill the gap between housing supply and demand, through innovative mortgage products, tax incentives for real estate investors, including some related to low-income housing and creation of a mortgage liquidity facility with competitively priced long-term bonds. Slum upgrading was incorporated into the National Housing Policy 2004 as one of the key components of the government's programmed for Integrated Land and Urban Sector. Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP) is a project of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, supported by the World Bank, Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). Cooperation with private sector stakeholders such as banks and international funding organizations is mostly project related, while civic support in housing microfinance is generally structural.
