The unveiling of homes fitted with capacity to generate solar power for heating as well as a system to help recycle water is a welcome development in the building industry.

This is a new trend, as unveiled by Tamarind Properties recently, which new investors in the building industry should adopt even though it may make the homes built slightly more expensive.

In fact, there are many apartments these days that are served not only with water and electricity utilities, but also with satellite dishes, and lately with fibre-optic connection for Internet and other communication.

Thus, there is a growing tendency to see construction as a wholesome way in which several industries can benefit a community, besides the fact that it is a major drive of economic activity.

Currently, the building and construction sector is among the few that have been growing - in a generally slow economy - at a pace similar to that of the years of economic boom, thanks to the huge deficit in the number of required houses especially in the urban areas.

Developers should not see inclusion of other services or utilities in the properties they are developing as a cost they can avoid, but should see it as having the potential to attract more prospective home owners.

Increasingly, there is a need to evaluate the whole model of building houses in terms of services provided.

Recently it was reported that owners of apartments or flats are asking that they be paid by fibre-optic companies to connect to their houses.

You would think that it is not in developers' interest to attract tenants who wants more utilities in their houses.

Perhaps a law should be put in place to ensure that every new apartment building should come with links to the Internet, satellite, and of course water and electricity.

Besides this, the apartments should also have parking and a playground for children.

Living in an apartment should not be like living in an enclosure without wriggle room for children who may not often get out into the open.

A few new apartments have provided the playgrounds, but many others are not doing that.

Developers are more interested in putting up as many apartments as possible without minding the comforts of tenants.

More often than not, a buyer desperate to find a house may not notice that the house lacks in certain amenities until, of course, he begins to live there.

Developers should not imagine that home buyers are for ever going to remain desperate.

As the economy grows and the financial markets offer greater amounts of construction finance, the sector could see a glut in houses.

In fact, there are analysts who are already saying that the frenzied construction works around the city of Nairobi and its environs is going to see a fall in prices in the coming years.

Not so long ago, Ben Woodhams, MD of property firm Knight Frank and a major player in the industry, said that there is little demand for houses worth more than Sh25 million.

Soon there may be no demand for houses above Sh15 million and later on above Sh10 million - and the story could go on and on.

Developers should therefore put their act together and provide what home buyers require for their permanent comfort.