Nairobi, Jan. 17 -- The Kenyan dream of home ownership through mortgage loans has been thrown into a whirlwind after financial institutions began announcing new risk-based interest rates pricing formulas making the loans more expensive, outpricing the intended market.

Last week Equity Bank surprised the market by revising their interest rates for individual loans to 18 percent from 15 percent.

Word on the banking corridors indicates that other financial institutions are working out new interest rates and will follow suit with announcements in the coming weeks.

Grapevine is ripe with information that the new rates will be revised upwards between 3 percent and 5 percent on top of the current individual and corporate rates.

While it is n...