Student accommodation provider Qwetu residences has resumed its operations. This is after the premises met all Covid-19 safety guidelines.
Qwetu incorporated the hygiene and housekeeping protocols issued by the Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services at all their four residences. With that, therefore, the hostel provider is now betting on the resumption of studies to regain lost ground just like most businesses in the country.
“An audit by public health officers, at our residences, found all four to be compliant with the Covid-19 protocols and procedures were, therefore, recommended and cleared for immediate occupancy,” Ms. Patricia Wambua, the Qwetu Residences spokesperson said.
Measures adopted by the student accommodation provider, she notes, include social distancing protocols in their complimentary shuttle buses, contactless customer transactions through their QCare service, and an environmental audit team to inspect all their residences three times a month to ensure compliance.
Since their residences reopened in June, they have seen an influx of students preferring to stay in their hostels even as they attend virtual classes.
Demand Expectation
“At this rate, we expect our waiting list for January 2021 to exceed our current capacity,” said Ms. Wambua.
As classes are expected to resume in January 2021, Ms. Wambua anticipates an acute shortage of student accommodation in the country because of the already over-crowded facilities which will be deemed unfit for occupation in light of the Covid-19 health guidelines.
To help address the accommodation shortage, Qwetu plans to launch a new student accommodation brand called Qejani. Qejani will seek to provide affordable hostels to students majorly in underserved areas.
“Our plan is to provide a fresh approach to housing for students in Kenya with product pricing that caters to all income brackets, including students who would otherwise have been locked out from access to quality accommodation. Our new and affordable student housing brand Qejani will seek to help meet this demand in an innovative way,” reported Ms. Wambua.
“Most hostels – both on and off-campus – have previously been overcrowded and will now be required to operate at lower capacities because of Covid-19 guidelines, further complicating the student accommodation challenges in higher education. We intend to do our part to address this challenge as Qwetu and Qejani,” she said.
Qwetu and Qejani are brands under Acorn Holdings Africa-a leading integrated real estate business providing purpose-built rental housing for students. Their residences are located, in Ruaraka, along Jogoo Road, Madaraka, and Parklands in Nairobi City County with plans to open more facilities in the future.
Under-Supply
Currently, there are fewer than 40,000 beds available for college and university students across Kenya as there are around 550,000 tertiary students today up from 27,000 in 1990. This explains the biting shortage of student accommodation.
Kenya is lagging behind in unlocking the business potential in student accommodation despite the high returns it attracts in developed countries. Currently, student accommodation shortfall accounts for 40 percent of the country’s housing shortage. This has strained on-campus accommodation facilities, forcing students to seek private accommodation.
Student housing or purpose-built student accommodation refers to housing that has been designed specifically to meet the demands and requirements of the modern-day student.
The concept has gained much traction globally and has become a mainstream investment class asset gaining more attention from institutional investors especially in developed European markets and the United States, driven by the huge student enrolment numbers and a failure on the institutions’ part to provide accommodation that is commensurate with the increase in student enrolment populations.
