The Developer's Digest, Jan - Mar 2018 Issue

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from KPDA Partner
from KPDA Partner
align leadership, improve cross-sector collaboration, and build new models of inclusive governance to drive
effective planning and project delivery.
Cities now contribute to a vast and growing equity gap. Globally, a number of complex issues are
colliding: income, education, and health disparities that sit at the root of social unrest; blight and ecological
degradation; and the growing threat of climate change. Neighborhoods are the Soul & Lifeblood of the city.
Sustainability Needs
To Be Scaled From A
Neighbourhood Level
It has been a tradition in Kenya for developers to Master plan their development projects into gated
communities and mixed-use developments-a recent phenomenal. Gated communities convey a sense of
place and social exclusivity, perceptions the developers have capitalized on to fuel their greatest desire at
this point which is to sell as many units as possible in the development and as fast as possible in order to
move on to the next project development and so on.
Now, when you take Nairobi as a benchmark and sift through property marketing material, you will notice the
prominence of exclusivity in addition other unique selling features like security, internet & cable connectivity,
sense of place, green infrastructure and sustainability features. This was not the case some years ago.
These selling propositions are an improvement to overcome deficiencies that have seen yesteryear flagship
estates like Buruburu and Woodley end up in premature decay. Although property values have gone up with
time in these neighbourhoods for example, these values have failed to reflect the true picture of what would
have been their actual values at this point in time.
As developers continue to build houses to cater for the housing deficit that currently plaques Kenya, they
will have to integrate sustainability from a neighbourhood scale. Sustainability and resilience are becoming
major drivers of property investment decision because of their ability to future proof real estate investments.
With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities worldwide and trillions of shillings being spent to
accommodate this growth over the next 30 years, Developers and investors should see this as a major
opportunity to promote a range of neighborhood-scale sustainability best practices that simultaneously
address equity, resilience, and climate protection.
In order for sustainable neighbourhood to thrive, developers will have to look beyond the physical
environment. They will have to look at the people who live around their neighbourhood developments
and those who will live in those upcoming neighbourhoods under their development. This will mean doing
more than just having a facilities or property management company on board. Rather, it will necessitate
establishing community engagement and governance structure for a development that will be able to
address equity, resilience and climate protection. Developers will have to embrace and incorporate new
models of urban regeneration to empower just, resilient, sustainable neighborhoods for all.
This is because, for far too long, urban regeneration has been primarily about brick-and-mortar solutions
to building and rehabilitating neighborhoods. The world of city building has drastically changed, and it
requires a more diverse and more integrated range of solutions to empower social vibrancy and
restore ecological health. Success hinges on building robust public-private-civic partnerships to
Neighborhoods sit at the heart of some of the most complex challenges facing city makers today. But they
can also become the building blocks of sustainable cities. Neighborhoods provide a uniquely valuable scale
to introduce and accelerate investments that can achieve profound improvements in equity, resilience, and
climate protection. Neighborhoods are the right scale to accelerate sustainability because they are small
enough to innovate and big enough to leverage meaningful investment and public policy impact. How we
build our cities — from the neighborhood up — is the biggest challenge of our lifetime.
To foster this new model and era of urban regeneration and property development, developers will have
to accept a new rigorous sustainable urban development framework for achieving people-centered,
economically vibrant, planet-loving, neighborhood- and district-scale sustainability. Such a
framework puts a comprehensive lens on every urban regeneration decision, drives the delivery of
meaningful performance outcomes, and sets the conditions for sustainable, collective impact.
Towards Real Estate Development that is Value Driven, Sustainable and Socially Responsible
Towards Real Estate Development that is Value Driven, Sustainable and Socially Responsible