Abstract:
Housing has been regarded as one of the fundamental rights of human being.
Adequate housing is more than a roof over one’s head. However, the biggest
challenge facing resident in Nairobi City County is lack of adequate housing
particularly to low- and middle-income households. This situation has been
worsening by high cost of building material, high cost of land, high cost of financing,
rapid urbanization, rural–urban migration and social-economic disparity among the
residents. The housing cooperative model of financing can be more cost-effective
than other form of mortgage in the market because the cooperative housing
corporation can access both internal and external funding from different financial
institutions on behalf of its members. The main of objective of study was to examine
the role of housing co-operatives in the provision of affordable housing for their
members in Nairobi City County, Kenya. While the specific objectives of the study
were as follows: To profile housing co-operative models to address shortage of
affordable housing in Nairobi City County, to determine the influence of co-operative
member participation on housing affordability in Nairobi City County, Kenya, to
assess the effect of supportive environment for housing co-operatives in the context
of the “current housing affordability” in Nairobi City County, Kenya and to examine
the influence of co-operative housing finance on housing affordability in Nairobi City
County, Kenya. The study adopted a mixed method research design employing both
quantitative and qualitative approach. Simple random sampling technique was used
to select the 397 members from the 35 housing co-operatives and purposive sampling
technique was used to select ten housing experts as key informants. Qualitative data
was analysed using content analysis technique. Quantitative data was analysed using
descriptive statistics (including frequency, percentages and mean). For inferential
statistics, the data was analysed using multiple regression analysis and restricted
maximum likelihood. The findings revealed that limited housing cooperative model
was most common among the resident of Nairobi City County, followed by multiple
mortgage cooperative model and lastly continue housing cooperative model. The
limited housing cooperative model accommodated most of interest of low-income
household in terms of financing their land. On another objective, member
participation was significant predictors of housing affordability in the housing
cooperative at p < 0.05. Implying that member participation had a positive
relationship with housing affordability. Further, supportive environment (policy and
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legislation, support services and collaboration and partnership) were significant
predictors of housing affordability in the housing cooperative at p < 0.05, indicating
that supportive environment determines the growth and success of housing
cooperative in provision of affordable housing in Nairobi City County. Lastly,
cooperative housing finance (members’ savings, cooperative loan, government loan
and bank loan) were significant predictors of housing affordability in the housing
cooperative at p < 0.05, implying that the increase of cooperative housing finance led
to high affordability of the houses provided by housing cooperatives. The study
concluded that housing cooperative approach is the best in provision of affordable
housing particularly to low- and middle-income groups by using various housing
cooperative models. The study also concluded that housing cooperative can be a game
changer in housing sector if only provided supportive environment by various
stakeholders to thrift. The study recommends for adoption of housing cooperative
models that take into consideration diversity of their members in terms of
environmental, social, economic and cultural practices. The study also recommends
that housing cooperative needs to sensitize their members about the benefits of
participation in housing cooperative activities. The study further recommends for
reliable and affordable long-term sources of finance for housing cooperatives in order
to meet the demand of housing needs for their members. Additionally, the study
recommends that government agencies should provide a favourable environment for
housing co-operatives to provide affordable housing to their members. These
recommendations enlighten policy makers and practitioners in housing sector to
engage public on designing appropriate housing policy that address the housing needs
of their people.