Housing Finance of Kenya Limited was incorporated on 18th of November 1965.

Housing Finance Company of Kenya took over the Kenyan branch of the First Permanent Building Society, a company operating in Zimbabwe ( then Rhodesia). The founding investors were the Commonwealth Development Corporation and the Government of Kenya. CDC owned 60% of the equity and the Government 40% . In 1970 the Government became an equal Shareholder with CDC. In 1992 Housing Finance Company of Kenya offered part of the equity to the public and became a quoted company on the Nairobi Stock Exchange with the shareholding distributed as 30.4% of Government, 30.4% to the Commonwealth Development Corporation and 39.2% to the general public.

The company issued a prospectus dated 26/2/1999 in which 30 million of Government shares were offered to the public. After the sale, the general public and institutional investors increased their shareholding to 62.3%, CDC remained with 30.4% while the Government reduced its shareholding to 7.3%