the same issue was raised a few weeks ago regarding sale some railways (RVR) land that was going for an exorbitant amount.

I stand to be corrected but basing my argument on fundamentals, the price of a house is the net sum of amount spent on it (building costs), value of infrastructure (good roads- not gravel ones that dot most of Nairobi, reliable piped water, gas, electricity, telephone, security - the works ). The final ingredient to a house price is some reasonable degree of markup which should cover the location of the house, land rates paid, the uniqueness of the design, the view etc. In modern day Nairobi, there is no single locality from the slums - where slum lords are reaping millions to the most plush areas that house prices have followed the said fundamentals. The same madness has spewed even to previously sleepy towns like Murang'a where plot prices have risen up to 500% within the last year.

A massive proportion of Kenyans (wananchi sio wenyenchi) legally earn & live way below reach of these housing prices. Where monies to fuel this craze is coming from remains a matter of speculation...... for now.

Where are the AML laws enacted recently? At the same time we need to get an authority to regulate Real estate industry in order to check the malpractices in this industry.

Kenyans have a culture of buying plots, may be we learned this habit from one community. A friend of mine has 4 plots - 2 in Kitengela and 2 in Rongai. And he needs only to build and settle in one. A clear case of speculation. Compare this with old times, once you finish college and secure an employment, the first dream was to drive a big car. The trend has changed nowadays, some even buy plots while in college. May be its good culture, may be bad...

@zakumi
Money-laundering is a hydra-headed monster transcending all borders - ethnic, communal, national,etc. So sawa, today it is best seen in form of warlalohs using pirate cash to gobble up our precious real estate. A few yrs back it was best seen in the drugs trade in Kenya (those nice fancy high-walled villas in Nyali..)and this was very widespread with top-level govt jamaas involved. Some top Kamba and still-very rich politician today were involved. Some of these criminal proceeds were laundered in form of villas purchased. Could the coasterians condemn the entire wa bara people for driving real estate prices in Nyali far into the stratosphere? Methinks, nah.

Even bhang used to be extensively cultivated in Mt Kenya forest on a serious scale but u can't condemn all Kyuks of investing these proceeds in real estate elsewhere and thereby destroying the local real estate business because not all were involved.

Even now Munir in Narok (he speaks masai very fluently) is involved in gun-running (of course with some maa collaborators) and that cash will surely be used/has been used to purchase real estate in Narok (that is money-laundering) - will u condemn the entire maa folks because of this?

And so on. Tomorrow it will be which criminal activity done by which community? Ethnic profiling in criminal activities can be misleading and is in fact a leading cause of the large numbers of black americans in U.S. jails

What Kenya needed is a strong anti-money laundering framework in place and the assenting of the AML Bill into law by the preso last month after 4 yrs of debate means we now have AML in our law books and have embarked on that journey. The law now gives law-enforcers powers to seize/ confiscate property acquired from the proceeds of criminal activities, including Eastleigh malls, high-end vehicles,etc. Sad the AML won't work retrospectively.

Again, some Kenyans with their heads in the sand. Truth be told - this issue is raising some serious concerns. A while back Mombasa residents held a demo over this - the house prices and rents were too high for the locals. Nairobi isn't exactly paradise, and those traders in real estate are driven by profit maximisation.

Ships will be hijacked, the money will pour into Kenya, and the property prices will rise - without justification! Who suffers - we all do, but of course some speculators in this forum are not suffering. Quick money is being made - genuinely.