Mi Vida Homes licensed as a Reits manager

Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has licensed property developer Mi Vida Homes Ltd to be a Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) manager.

Mi Vida Homes joins other licensees to facilitate the development of real estate infrastructure while deepening the capital markets.

"This will support the national government agenda for affordable housing," said CMA chief executive Wycliffe Shamiah

As a REIT manager, the company will provide real estate management services concerning REITs (a vehicle used by investors, especially retail, to enable them to purchase a piece of property that could be fairly expensive if one were to do it wholly by themselves). 

Mi Vida Homes chief executive Samuel Kariuki said the current fundamentals and outlook for residential real estate present a compelling investment case for REITS as an alternative asset class through which institutional and retail investors can tax-efficiently access this asset class.

“There has been a lot of momentum towards deepening the REITS market in Kenya in the recent past and we appreciate the role of the CMA, the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and the REITs Association in that," he said. 

"As Mi Vida, we are excited at getting to this milestone as part of our long-term ambition to catalyse mobilisation of capital markets towards both supply and demand side financing for real estate."

Kariuki said it was an honour to be part of the incubation programme for REITs issuers and the firm has developed a rich pipeline of de-risked projects that will benefit from the programme.

CMA has also licensed Kingsland Court Trustee Services Ltd as a corporate trustee and Mirova Sunfunder East Africa Ltd as an investment adviser.

Simultaneously, Securities Africa Kenya Ltd has been upgraded from a licensed stockbroker to an investment bank. The licenses will remain in force unless otherwise suspended or revoked following the necessary due process.