Simple Homes

Simple Homes Developers Consortium Limited incorporated as a limited liability company was created on the back of The Property Developers Consortium - Kenya to provide property developers with the capacity to raise their own capital to finance their property developments independently of banks and other financial institutions on terms accommodative of the type of enterprise that property development is while at the same time providing home buyers with the opportunity to own their own homes on favorable and affordable terms. Simple Homes is 97% owned by The Online Commodity Exchange Limited (TOCE) who with its network of 40 property managers and 140 estate agents and a domestic consumer base of 9,728 consumers in Nairobi was able to conduct direct consumer surveys that provided the information that informed the creation of spurred the incorporation of the company. The problem in the property sector in Kenya whether it is development or home buying revolves around finance. The structure of finance dominated by the banks does not favour anybody except the banks. Most players in the sector feel that it is a real estate problem without realizing the depth of what they are facing. As a result developers can’t raise the capital they require to build homes and home buyers can’t get the finance on favorable terms to buy homes. Simple Homes seeks to provide a financial solution on all fronts thereby bringing all factors to bear in one comprehensive solution that attracts all the various players in the real estate sector. Developers: Developers are looking for two things. First they seek finance on reasonable terms that is largely insulated from interest rates and penalties which wipe away their profits or dramatically increase the cost of their developments. Second they are looking for a sales vector that allows buyers to be able to buy on their own terms dramatically increasing the rate at which homes can be sold thereby increasing demand for property developments. What Simple Homes seeks to do for developers: To provide a finance solution that provides joint venture capital that is completely insulated from the volatility of interest rates and the punity of penalties. To create an after sales solution that provides the developer with a direct pipeline of home buyers structured in a manner that allows the developments to be sold completely off plan and for the profit to be realized the moment the development is completed with the developer obtaining the projected profit or more.
2. Real estate investors: Kenya’s Achilles Heal in real estate, this isn’t going to change soon it is part of the Kenya narrative and as old as our very struggle for independence. What most Kenyan’s however lack is quality real estate investments that are highly liquid and that pay a decent return quickly that they can afford. Initial survey results indicate that such a product could attract upwards of Kshs 500,000,000 a month. What Simple Homes seeks to do for real estate investors: To provide a vehicle that allows ordinary Kenyans to invest in top quality real estate developments in a manner that is not only safe, secure and liquid but that also pays a healthy return as an alternative not only to land banking but to bank fixed deposit and savings accounts.
3. Home buyers: Home buyers can afford to rent but they cannot afford to buy and as interest rates hit 28% it has just gotten twice as hard in this economy. What makes the situation worse is that 75% of potential home buyers even though they have regular incomes would not qualify for mortgages under the current mortgage rules and that is why even as interest rates fell as low as 11% at the beginning of 2013 home purchases did not increase by the corresponding level as they would in a developed economy. What Simple Homes seeks to do for home buyers: Home buyers will be able to save over long periods to be able to purchase a home with only 5% of the value required and in so doing be able to book homes off plan, then on completion they will be able to enter into tenant purchase plans that will see them pay the equivalent of what they are currently paying in rent, to move into another tenant purchase plan while taking out the equity they have earned in the current home in cash or leverage that equity to be able to execute lease purchases for household furniture, appliance and automobiles. By using Simple Homes the home buyer gets not only to own their own home but to open up the doors of financial freedom previously unavailable to them.