Unlocking finance for affordable, sustainable homes
In 2021, FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi) joined a consortium of leading investors including UK Climate Investments (UKCI, now under British International Investment management), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the County Pension Fund (CPF) to launch the International Housing Solutions (IHS) Kenya Affordable Green Housing Fund. The Fund was established to tackle Kenya’s pressing urban housing deficit by financing developments certified through the EDGE green building standard, targeting low- and middle-income households.
By providing catalytic equity capital, FSDAi aims to demonstrate the commercial viability of green affordable housing. The Fund aims to deliver up to 4,000 green-certified homes by 2030, improving living standards, reducing utility costs, and contributing to Kenya’s climate resilience and inclusive urban growth.
Turning investment into market insight
Beyond financial returns, FSDAi’s investment sought to create lasting market impact. Through a side letter agreement, FSDAi required IHS to adopt an Open Source Policy, ensuring that data and insights generated from the investment would be publicly shared. To embed this principle, FSDAi provided the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) with a grant for a four-year Open Access Initiative (OAI) to collect, analyse, and disseminate data from IHS and other housing developments in Kenya.
This initiative is now generating vital, publicly available market intelligence and helping new investors understand the economics of affordable housing, guiding policymakers, and strengthening the capacity of housing practitioners across the region. By doing so, FSDAi’s catalytic investment continues to multiply its impact far beyond a single project, driving systemic change in Africa’s housing finance ecosystem. Various outputs have been published on CAHF’s Open Access website, benchmarking construction costs in Kenya, reviewing reasons for rejection, promoting ESG standards, and now, as the housing developments that IHS is funding start to unfold, tracking the steps, time and costs involved in the delivery of affordable housing in Kenya. With the support of FSD Kenya, CAHF has also secured the agreement of the Kenyan State Department for Housing and Urban Development to track six Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) projects, documenting and comparing their costs, while also considering the impact of the AHP on the economy and on job creation. A further initiative has been the Nairobi Metropolitan Area Dashboard which collects and maps all housing developments in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area, giving an indication of market activity and targeting. CAHF is currently in discussion with partners in Abuja, Nigeria, to replicate this model there.
It is still early days, but the delivery of these outputs is having two broad impacts – first, the content is being incorporated in strategic decision making by the parties, as developers and investors, as well as the Kenyan government, consider the data. Second, the sensitivities around data sharing are slowly being overcome, and more developers are expressing an interest in participating in the OAI, both to better understand their own businesses, but also to showcase their track records and experience in the wider sector and to investors in particular. CAHF hopes that the OAI will continue to be supported by funders so that it can grow into a sustainable offering not only in Kenya but across the continent.
Catalytic capital for systemic change
The IHS Kenya case demonstrates FSDAi’s unique approach as:
- A catalyst for innovation — testing and scaling new investment structures that blend impact and commercial sustainability.
- An enabler of market development — providing insights that attract institutional capital and build investor confidence.
- A partner committed to impact — improving access to affordable housing while advancing climate resilience and social inclusion.
Through strategic, insight-driven investments like this, FSDAi is helping reshape Africa’s housing finance landscape — proving that catalytic capital can unlock lasting, large-scale transformation for people and planet.
See a short case study of the IHS Investment and the Open Access Initiative in the recently published Playbook for Blended Finance in Affordable Housing in Africa.
