The Kenyan real estate properties market is the most lucrative in the East coast of Africa with several high rise establishments currently under construction in major cities across the country including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and the leafy suburbs surrounding them. Although the real estate sector is not yet at its best, several reasons have been cited for this, the most crucial being the unfriendly nature of the sector to the common middle class citizens who majorly rely on mortgages to finance their investments in the sector. The situation is however about to change with more application of blockchain-based solutions into the sector. Kenya is still in the very early stages of adopting cryptocurrency and blockchain owing to the fact that most people are unaware of this sector and the benefits it comes with or are too skeptical on the viability of the technology seeing as it is new to them. The government has however in recent years launched a commission to look into the blockchain sector and give recommendations to the state. It is important to note that though some Kenyans have embraced blockchain, their investments are majorly on international products. The country however has a limited number of startups in blockchain that are slowly introducing the population to the crypto market.
With Kenya striving to achieve development goals by embracing technology through its Vision 2030, Hodhi is one startup that is tailoring blockchain solutions to the Kenyan real estate market. Hodhi is a real estate and crypto firm that deals in financing investment in properties using cryptocurrency and blockchain tokenization solutions. The startup was founded in the year 2022 and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Its vision is to create financial power in home ownership and provide all Africans with an opportunity to create and grow wealth by investing in real estate products within the country. The firm is geared towards addressing market bottlenecks in the region to attract more investors by democratizing the sector therefore making it more accessible to regular investors. The real estate sector is mostly dominated by financial heavy weights in the African nation because it requires a lot of capital to invest in. Most of the properties are also being held by the older population which is very much skeptical of blockchain and cryptocurrency. By creating equity in the real estate sector, Hodhi can make it sustainable for the young unemployed sector to start owning fractions of properties from as low as KSH 50(Kenyan Shillings) and grow wealth gradually to achieve financial stability.
The firm was co-founded by Graeme Reid who is also an investor inn the startup as well as Mao-Ngamau Mukuria who also doubles as the CEO(Chief Executive Officer) of the firm. According to Hodhi’s scheme, investors can buy their tokens from as low as KSH 50 to KSH 50 000 and will have grown their investment by 20% within the first three years. The firm’s tokens are stable because they are backed by actual real estate assets and liquid cash in the bank. Apart from that the firm promises 100% security as assets can be owned for a lifetime and then passed down to another generation within the investor’s family. Additionally, to attract more investors to adopt this scheme, users are awarded credit worth 75% of the total value of their assets on the portfolio. By tokenizing affordable real estate projects, the firm is set to serve more than 100 000 000 Africans in need of affordable housing and real estate projects to invest in at a friendly cost.
Author’s sentiments
This startup is one step towards the right direction in achieving sustainable development Goals within the country and Africa as a whole while utilizing technology. The tech say Gen-Z has an opportunity to equalize odds with the older generations that are more stable and adamant towards cryptocurrency by investing in these real estate tokens. Even with a maximum of 1000 tokens at a total cost of KSH 50 000, the scheme increases the number of potential investors tremendously. The scheme has similarities with Metropoly, an American startup in the same industry. What is your opinion on this development? Leave your thoughts below.
You can also read about the next article on the crypto startups within Kenya series here.
