Centum Real Estate targets to complete a 1,940-unit affordable housing project by 2029 after a $20 million (Sh2.58 billion) disbursement by the International Finance Corporation(IFC) reached its account.
The realtor said the funds will be deployed in the construction of green, affordable homes under the Mizizi project at the Two Rivers residential and commercial complex. The houses are priced at between Sh1.9 million and Sh10 million.
Centum Re Managing Director Kenneth Mbae said on Monday in a phone interview that the project has been subdivided into six phases with each targeting at least 300 units.
Mr Mbae said the first phase of 300 units that are under construction is now at the roof level and the plan is to complete it by February next year.
The 300 units that are under construction are already sold out while a further 256 have been sold off plan ahead of the start of the second phase in August this year, according to Mr Mbae.
“There will be six phases, and we plan to complete the project by 2029. The second phase will begin in August because we’ve structured the work in a way that allows us to start a new phase without fully completing the previous one. Our goal is to build in sequences of at least 600 units,” said Mr Mbae in a phone interview.
Centum Re is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed Centum Investment Company Plc.
The IFC loan is repayable in seven years, presenting to Centum Re a long-term debt funding for the project.
IFC's prior disclosures in 2023 showed Mzizi project would require a total outlay of $91 million (Sh11.75 billion).
The IFC loan comes as a boost to the project which Centum Re plans to fund internally to the tune of $71 million (Sh9.17 billion) using a mix of existing equity, buyer deposits, and reinvested profits from completed units.
“The project is located in Two Rivers, a prime mixed-use urban node located within Kenya’s Diplomatic Blue Zone in northern Nairobi and where the Company currently resides,” said IFC in its project assessment note.
Centum Re has a land bank of more than 8,000 acres situated in prime, urban, and peri-urban locations in Kenya (Nairobi and Kilifi) and Uganda (Entebbe).
As at the end of March 2024, Centum disclosures showed Centum Re had approximately 2,113 units in its portfolio of projects spread out in Kilfi and Nairobi and Pear Marina in Uganda, with a revenue potential of Sh17.7 billion.
Centum Re had borrowed Sh4.06 billion as of the end of March 2024, compared with Sh5.23 billion in the prior year. In 2023, the firm paid up a Sh3 billion bond that it had issued to finance its housing projects.
