•Association of Real Estate Stakeholders is a new outfit and currently has more than 600 members mainly drawn from real estate and land selling companies.
•Land and housing has been one of the fastest growing sectors in Kenya over the past decade buoyed by a growing number of the middle class
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Local real estate company-Finsco Africa Limited that is also involved in land selling, has inked a funding partnership with the National Bank of Kenya, allowing access to financing for property.
The partnership will see customers interested in buying land get access to financing up to 70 per cent from the bank.
The deal will involve both development financing and user finance with a repayment of up to ten years for the said project dubbed ‘Thika Grove Chania’.
Finsco CEO John Mwaura said the company is putting up for sale two hundred acres of land targeting middle and upper middle class, who may want to set up residential houses in a well-controlled gated community with close proximity to Nairobi and Thika town.
Land and housing has been one of the fastest growing sectors in Kenya over the past decade, buoyed by a growing number of the middle class with the demand for land, especially in satellite towns going up as demand for housing soars.
Land prices in Nairobi’s satellite town increased the highest in quarter-four of last year on the back of rising demand for land that slowed down at the peak of Covid.
Data by realtor HassConsult shows that Ngong, Athi River, Limuru and Thika recorded a 4.7 percent, 4.4 percent, 4.2 percent and 3.6 percent rise in land prices respectively.
For example, an acre of land cost Sh28.8 million in Ngong while Sh29.3 million in Thika.
Finsco Africa Thika Grove Chania project which borders Kiambu and Murang'a counties is selling quarter an acre at Sh5.8 million half an acre at Sh10.2 million.
According to Mwaura, there has been a boom in land transactions as people move away from Nairobi and settle in metropolitan towns and its neighbouring areas, where the land is relatively cheaper.
"The demand for housing is very high and that is why even for those customers who will be buying land from us and intend to set up houses, Finsco Africa will be providing housing typology to avoid a situation where a single dwelling gets mixed with multi-dwelling,’’ added Mwaura.
The company has partnered with an American firm on building techniques, dubbed Aluminium Formwork System, where large-scale construction can happen and construction is completed within a year.
Even as demand for housing and land goes up, so are rogue companies and individuals preying on buyers, Mwaura noted.
The sector has seen the formation of the Association of Real Estate Stakeholders to curb the vise.
"We are glad the new umbrella body is vetting companies before they get enrolled to weed out rogue companies in the sector that for many years, there have been cases of defrauding Kenyans millions of shillings in non -existent land buying deals or double allocations,’’ said Mwaura.
Association of Real Estate Stakeholders is headed by Kinyua Wairatu who is the chairman and currently has more than 600 members, mainly drawn from real estate and land-selling companies.
Land prices in Nairobi 18 suburbs remained static in the fourth quarter of last year, with a 0.19 per cent increase over the quarter.
The lackluster performance over the last three months of 2022 was a result of the spillover effect from the previous quarter, when activity generally slowed down across the general economy.