The Retirement Benefits Sector has registered significant growth with the total Assets Under Management growing to Kshs 1.3 trillion in 2020 from Kshs 0.8 bn in 2017. There has been a lot of advancement in regulations, both how the funds can be invested i.e. incorporation of new asset classes and how members can benefit more from their accumulated savings. With over 3 million Kenyans being members of a formal Retirement scheme in Kenya, we have seen the Retirement Benefits Authority champion ways in which people can use their accumulated funds to own a home. The two main ways that are already in place include one:

1. Using up to 60% of their accumulated funds as part security for their house purchase: the importance of this is that you can borrow more than the purchase of the house i.e. including the closing costs. The main aim was to help people not to be burned by upfront costs while buying a house. The lending entity still has to do their own due diligence on the members ability to pay.
   

2. The use of up to 40% of the accumulated fund balance with a maximum of Kshs 7 million to buy a house. This is largely expected to be used by members to purchase houses and given the amounts the key focus is in the low to mid income estates and helps champion the affordable housing agenda.  
   

Despite the above supportive legislation, we are yet to see significant traction and uptake of the two solutions and this can be attributed to:

1. The High Property Prices: property prices have remained relatively high and that is why most people are not in a position to buy ready-made houses;
2. Lower Accumulated Individual Balances: for an average employee the fund balances are not significant and for people with huge accumulated balances means that they were earning more cash and most probably already owns a house;
3. The Affordability Rate: the average income still remains low making mortgage serviceability unattainable. Given that the amount given above might not be enough to buy the house one needs to combine it with a mortgage hence making it slightly expensive;
4. The Cash is Restricted to Buying a Ready House Only: looking at the Kenya bankers statics 68% of Kenya prefers constructing their housing and only 17% had bought houses. There could therefore be a gap between what the market wants and what can be done with the accumulated funds.
   

In order to help members, achieve the much-needed goal of home ownership, below are some of the suggested solutions:

1. Partnerships: The various Retirement Benefits Schemes especially those with large investable amounts should look at partnering with various trusted developers to come up with houses that can be bought by their members. This will aid in both getting good returns for their members at the same time helping them with home ownership;
2. Diversification of Regulations: Though it shall be difficult to implement, the regulators could expand the usage of funds to include usage of the accumulated funds to other things like the purchase of land that could be eventually used for constructing a home. The key challenge however remains the administration headache of the same to avoid the use of the retirement funds for speculative purposes;
3. Member Education: Financial literacy is one of the key hindrances to the growth and uptake of financial products. The regulators together with the pension industry players should take it upon themselves to ensure that members understand what the provisions in law are and they plan on taking advantage of the said regulations.
4. Adoption of Alternative Building Technology: With costs being one of the largest prohibitive factors, if we can continuously look at technology that can be used to reduce the cost of construction that would be a step in the right direction.
   

In conclusion it is the duty of all the keep players in the various sectors related to home ownership i.e. pension sector players, banks, developers and trustees to come together and come up with affordable products that members can take advantage of.