Full Length Research Paper
Abstract
Article 43 1 (b) of the constitution of Kenya (2010), alongside other international treaties which the country is party to, obligates the state to provide housing for all Kenyans. These instruments place a greater emphasis on the slums and informal settlements upgrading and development, key among which is down market urban housing. Down market urban housing is principally housing for the low income urban households, or low cost housing. There are many challenges on this endeavour in Kenya, key among them being the application of outdated technologies, inadequate innovation, inadequate financing and low application of efficiency, effectiveness and economy considerations. This situation has led to backlogs in housing supply. The State Department of Housing in Kenya puts the demand for housing at 250,000 units per year while the supply is 50,000 units, creating an annual deficit of 200,000 units. Stakeholders have therefore scouted for alternative methods of addressing these gaps and PPPs have been cited as one of the possible solution to address the undersupply of down market urban housing. This study utilized the Delphi method to gauge the prospects of providing down market urban housing through strategic application of PPPs. It was found out that there are high prospects for applying PPPs in housing delivery. The public sector should come up with PPP models which can work locally, it should incentivise the private sector and more so create enabling environment. It was concluded that PPPs are applicable in the provision of down market urban housing with the right structuring. The recommendations made for Kenya and developing countries are to adopt application of PPPs if the country were to reduce the huge backlogs in housing.
Key words: Public private partnerships (PPPs), down market urban housing, public and private sector, housing affordability/challenges and provision.
Copyright © 2025 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0