The draft Housing Bill will establish the National Housing Development Fund once it becomes law to facilitate housing construction and related infrastructure.

According to Housing permanent secretary Tirop Kosgey, the fund will be allocated in excess of Sh10 billion annually by the national government in renewed efforts to plug the widening demand-supply gap for affordable homes across the country.

It will also raise funds from the capital markets through housing bonds.

Funds will be channelled through financial and mortgage institutions, including micro-financiers and co-operatives, to facilitate low-cost housing projects.

"The bill is still lying at the office of the Attorney General since 2011. We had to re-do the earlier draft to meet the standards of the new constitution," Kosgey said on Monday at the ground-breaking of Precious Gardens in Riruta, a joint venture between Housing Finance and a landowner.

The National Housing Corporation will get direct allocation from the NHDF for public and social housing and rural housing loans, but other institutions will have to apply to the fund for part or full financing of low-cost housing development or onward lending.

The fund will be administered by the Kenya National Housing Development Fund Committee which will be set up once the law is enacted.