THE REAL ESTATE SCENE IN KENYA

rise of the property market in Kenya has
seen all the banks create products tailored for
this market, and most of them have partnered
with the real estate developers in Kenya to give
Kenyans an affordable way of buying properties
of their choice. For instance, the Development
Bank of Kenya has been funding several
development projects and providing Kenyans
access to credit to own these properties.
Among the many profitable business ideas in
Kenya, real estate in Kenya proves to be in the
League of the most viable business
opportunities that someone should think when
considering to invest his/her cash in Kenya.
However, before investing in the real estate in
Kenya, an investor is advised to understand the
dynamics of buying, selling, and renting property
in Kenya as I explore below.
SCENARIO 1: In some places in Kenya,
developing a residential property and selling it
out works better that building it for people to be
renting. It is the reason most banks are
creating partnerships with developers to ensure
Kenyans afford the houses. For instance,
houses within Mlolongo in Machakos County and
the border of Nairobi County – have a market
price of 4M to 8M depending on the size of the
room.
Let’s say you have developed several three
bedroom units, and each has a sale value of
eight million, and the renting rate is 35,000/=
per month. Given a chance to choose, which is
the most successful path to choose is such a
scenario? If you decide to rent, you will make
420,000/= per year meaning that you need 20
years to make the sale value. Now let’s say the
renting value increase by 20% per year – still –
it will take you years to make the current sale
value – do you still need me to convince you
which is the best option? Seriously?
SCENARIO 2: Let’s explore the development of
offices as part of a stable investment in the real
estate in Kenya sector for investors. The
question is trying to answer in this scenario is
whether to sell or rent your office property after
developing – which is the better deal?
Depending on the location of the bureaux,
renting out is far much better than selling the
property to get the quick cash. Look at the case
of Elgon Plaza, the park at the center of a
controversy that sent the former Chief Registrar
of Judiciary home. Did I hear the renting fee
per year was close to a billion? Could there be
any other better deal than this?
Offices in central towns – like in Machakos
Town where am writing this article from,
perform far much better if you are renting them
out. For instance in Machakos, the Kiamba Mall
is one of the most expensive places to own an
office with square feet going for 75/=. The
cheapest room office I could secure at that mall
was to cost me 112,000/= per month – you still
want more information?
Property in Kenya | What To Consider for Your
Real Estate in Kenya Business
There are several aspects of the genuine estate
property business that you should put into
consideration in your pocket and your
prospective clients.
The first thing to consider is your developer and
the mode of financing. Some developer might
exploit your inability to master the trends in the
property market in Kenya and this exploitation it
is likely to cost you more than you can imagine.
Does the developer have their architect or you
will have to hire for yourself separately? Does
the developer have a bad reputation from
previous clients? Imagine spending cool
500Million to developer a residential estate only
to be brought down by the City Council – now
it’s the county government without
compensation because your developer violated
rules or is just miserable?
Are you ready to waste your time in court
battles? Just because you failed to do due
diligence? Now, that was the case for your
developer. Before the issue with your developer,
the land you are about to develop your house or
property – is it certified as legal? Do you have a
fake title deed? Could it be demolished in
future? Does it sit on a road reserve and some
real estate agents in Kenya exploited you using
false documents – can you bear such kind of a
disappointment without being admitted to
Kenyatta National Hospital or the Matter
Hospital?
ADVISE: ensure you follow the right channel
before you start investing your hard earned cash
in the real estate sector in Kenya because you
can be disappointed beyond your weirdest
imaginations.
For your potential clients, ensure the developed
property meets your expectations and not the
expectations of your developer. Ensure there is
adequate security, proper drainage system,
spacious rooms, balcony and anything that
would make your clients comfortable.
Real Estate Online Portals To Help You Find,
Buy, and Rent Property in Kenya
Now, as a developer, owner or buyer, where do
you find the opportunities to buy rent or sell the
latest properties on the market? The internet
world in Kenya has significantly changed how
people do business with the Uhuru Kenyatta
administration encouraging the use of Internet
to carry out transactions. So far, government
employees in Kenya are getting their payslips on
the Internet from the GHRIS and KRA has
digitized everything, and this is the case for the
property market.
On the same note, am going to explore the
leading online portal in Kenya where you can
quickly find the latest development in the real
estate sector in Kenya. In my case, I will use
Alexa Rankings – an inadequate measure but
the only one we have for the rankings, – an
Alexa Rank means that a site with a lower Alexa
Rank gets more visitors than a site with a high
Alexa Rank.
If a website describes itself as the leading real
estate site, it does not mean exactly that, after
all, that’s just a description the site is using to
rank on search engines such as Google and
Yahoo – let’s explore the sites
1. Buy Rent Kenya (buyrentkenya.com)
BuyRentKenya ranks No 1 in Kenya for real
estate websites and No 64 in Kenya on Alexa
Rank as at the time of publishing this article.
The statistic can change overnight. Being the
leading real estate site in Kenya, it gives
thousands of Kenyans an opportunity to search
for properties for sale, properties to buy and
rent from the top agents in the country.
Buy rent Kenya is also one of most profitable
websites in Kenya using the direct ads model of
monetizing content online. It is the best model
for any webmaster being applied by
BuyRentKenya.com.
Nicolas Adamjee owns rent Kenya, a Mauritius
national, as per the information on whois.com
Registrar details.
2. Property Leo Residential (http://
www.propertyleo.com/)
Propertyleo is the second leading real estate
website in Kenya providing avenues for Kenyans
to find resources according to Alexa Rank. It
ranks number 117 in Kenya on Alexa.
The description of business “Property Leo is
Kenya’s leading online property portal serving
the Kenyan Real Estate sector with searchable
list of properties for sale and to let which
include apartments to let townhouses and villas
”
Property Leo is under the Jengaweb.com
Company on registration, and I cannot,
therefore, verify the owner of the website.
3. KRUSS Real Estate (http://kruss-ltd.com/)
KRUSS Real Estate is the number 3 site in
Kenya and mainly focuses on Mombasa real
estate world. KRUSS property ranks number 136
in Kenya on Alexa rank.
The description “Mombasa properties for Sale
and Rent, KRUSS Real Estate | Properties in
Mombasa; beach plots, apartments, houses”
From the description of the website, you can
see the site targets the Mombasa market, and
has offices in Nyali Mombasa
KRUSS belongs to a Russian National called
Alexander E Kruss according to whois.com
Registrar information.
4. Property24 (http://www.property24.co.ke/)
Property24 it’s our 4th website on this list and
ranks number 264 in Kenya. The site
description/keywords “Property 24 Kenya,
Houses for sale, Property for sale, Flats for
sale, Farms, Property repossessions,
apartments.”
Property24 belongs to Korbitec (Pty) Ltd, a
South African firm based in Cape Town
5. KenyaReal (http://kenyareal.com/)
KenyaReal closes our list of top 5 real estate
Kenyan websites based on Alexa Rank. The
sites description ” Kenya Real is Kenya�s home
of real estate, property developers, real estate
agents, property lawyers, real estate articles,
contractors, architects, mortgage providers, and
real estate agents.”
KenyaReal belongs to Innocent Gathungu
OwnitKenya Properties, OwnitKenya will help
you get the best villa in town – they have red
hill villas, neema villas, and maua villas. Visit
their website for more details
We hope you have enjoyed reading our real
estate in Kenya analysis – in the coming weeks,
we will provide useful content on different
aspects of the Property Market in Kenya