Still on social distancing meaning a lot of indoors. Therefore, I have found myself scouring for informative content(real estate mostly) to watch on Netflix. Don’t get me wrong I still love my drama! So, in the process, I found this reality TV series “Selling Sunset. The gist is the drama in The Oppenheim Group real estate agents. However, what caught my eye was the value of the property they get to sell tuning to upto$75,000,000. Can you imagine the commission? Anyway, its LA, let’s come home.
I decided to check the Kenyan events and without much hustle, I found some YouTube videos. Both by major influencers in Kenya regarding luxury property investments. One is the famous, huge 88 project in Upper hill, Nairobi. Africa’s second tallest Residential Condominium coming up. Fun Fact! Apartment booking 100k, fair! Mimi ni Nani I went straight to the website and booked apartment 33. Then proceeded to schedule a visit. I had a meeting with myself and realized who was I kidding. But Lupita Nyong’o said “Dreams are valid’.
The other video was on buying land in Nanyuki by Caroline Mutoko and many more on this channel on the Amara ridge etc. These videos painted a brief picture on high end property investment. I am interested in knowing how young people are invested in this sector. Do you want to buy or rent? Our generation is fluid and we don’t want to be fixed. We are more likely to start over in a new country than our parents. Where does place us in the investment plan? Some of the plans are friendly because you can sell, mortgage, place on Airbnb etc. Maybe we are shying away from the detached property. I am not sure. I digress. We shall revisit. Today let’s look at the real estate trends in Kenya.
Real Estate Trends in Kenya.
I am no expert in real estate but is it not all things land here. Let’s see! It’s no doubt that Africa is on the move in terms of trade (African Continental Free Trade Agreement), development global influence, wealth creation, and ease of doing business. Africa has a large base of multinational, indigenous and rapidly rising companies that aim to take advantage of the continent’s growth trajectory commercially before their competitors.
Residential
The residential market paints two distinct features, where we have an acute shortage of affordable housing and an oversupply of high-end homes. Urbanization, growing population and the significant increase in middle class exerts pressure on affordable housing. The demand for affordable housing is to cater to the large % of slum dwellers and student accommodation. But for real though, universities and governments need to do better on students’ accommodation. Whatever house I lived in while in Uni …. let’s just leave it at that.
Experts say this shortage of affordable is because a lot of attention was directed to high-end homes and apartments. The market for such is dwindling due to by restricted access to credit, combined with ongoing over-supply of high-end housing developments. The housing development project under the Big Four agenda is meant to solve this situation. Let’s see what happens in the next 2 yrs.
Retail Space
The retail sector is growing and it’s the increasing malls in the country rend to favour it. A growing middle class, and thus more disposable income, international and local developers have quickly grabbed the opportunity to tap into the ready market with the mall concept. Remember the YouTube videos? Caro says that Nairobians will always ask “Kuna Java?”You will never miss such brands in a mall. This mall concept has attracted international brands like Carrefour, Burger King, Subway, Converse, other beauty shops that were only available in the airport’s duty-free shops. The mushrooming malls in the counties are driving developments there. In fact, these malls provide services and feel of the cosmopolitan away from the City madness.
Office Spaces
The economy has been inviting enough for firms to expand their operations, look at the Upper hill for example. International organization are setting new operational bases in the country. Kenya is considered the key gateway to the East African market and a leading economic hub in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although lately, Rwanda is doing the most especially in the tech! The demand for smart and serviced offices is slowly increasing. Some of the modern spaces available are what we used to see in movies years back. I still am stan by the tech spaces. These fellas have game rooms! There is a supply for the futurist designs and are considerate of people with disability in terms of access.
Industrial
The industrial zones are slowly migrating to the periphery of Nairobi. Machakos, for instance, is becoming an industrial hub housing, steel mills, cement, and others.
Modern and sustainable industrial parks like Tatu City Industrial Park and Infinity Industrial Park are some of the new trends waiting to feed the industrial niche which now demands serene environments than the already congested zones.
I think the next article should look at land values in general and agricultural land.Read more