True. Those towns are to be watched. Suswa must also not be left out of the prospective buy areas. Only problem is that you may end up on the tectonic plate fault line, nyumba ikatwe na Mungu katikati.. Worst possible nightmare of any real estate investor

Points to note:
1. Do not start your project without all approvals in hand
2. Bulk purchase of building materials will save you big time, though you will need a 'trusted' foreman to control stock
3. The head fundi shall become closer than a friend during construction. You have to trust that person and change them very early incase of any doubt in their ability
4. Accounting for all supplies will have to be religious, otherwise you may start to believe that someone is stealing, unfounded
5. Labor costs will scare you stiff, but good labor has never been cheap. Foreman current rates should average daily at KES 1,500; fundi KES 1,000 and laborers at KES 450
6. Try to always challenge the thought pattern of your project team. Obviously you will not over-ride the professionals, but learn to question their suggestions based on logic
7. Finishing could actually finish you due to the costs, hence you have to be very hands-on at the stated stage
8. Labor cost on tile work should be based on square meters and the current going rate is not more than KES 250/sqm
9. If site doesn't have water or electricity connections, it is important to start chasing for the same as work progresses on site, else you may end up with a ready unit that has no utilities
10. When transporting expensive/fragile items such as steel/tiles, better be ready to pay professional couriers for weight exceeding 2tonnes. Don't attempt to use normal transporters unless you are ready to suffer losses; and insure the stock-in-transit, if necessary

Hehe. Nugus

Habari ndio hii https://www.the-star.co....-to-sh3-million_c1747121

👏👏👏 impressive and congratulations

[quote=obiero]Habari ndio hii https://www.the-star.co....to-sh3-million_c1747121[/quote]


Why Can't the Gaarment focus on Big Three; Health, Food Security and Job creation.
The Govt should focus on Infrastructural development, for example, good roads, Reliable power, Water supply, working sewerage system, security etc Instead of HOUSING,which can be done by individual investors.

There is a question that no one is yet talking about. What is the likely effect of injecting so many extra housing units into a struggling real estate sector?

Don't get me wrong, I am not against the idea. But we are seeing a lot of companies struggling to offload houses especially on the upper middle and upper class segments. And now Uhuru is about to take the middle and lower middle class off the table too.

Could this finally burst the speculation buble that so many have spoken about?

@Obiero, I don't get it if the demand is there why did you stop your construction(congrats by the way good stuff)? Can the lower end afford your estimated rent for you to recoup your costs?

Lower end is in need of social housing. From the documentation GoK is building the social housing in Kibera, Kiambiu etc while private sector will cater for the emerging middle class through PPP. Some of the projects look like the ongoing civil servant housing scheme lumped in for PR purposes.

GoK has already done these initiatives before with little impact on the market e.g Umoja, Jericho, Dandora. The impact on real estate will only be short term for the benefit of middle class.

Most of government social housing projects even in the US, UK end up being crime-infested, dilapidated structures or high-rise slums. They are segregated in terms of income concentrating poverty in an area. Politicians with an eye on next elections don't give much thought to these projects and the effects are felt a generation away(like the projects in US). A mixed income approach would have been more ideal something close to what Tatu city is trying to achieve.

Good points. But the effect of the projects you cite was not negligible. Initially touted as housing for the poor - they ended up benefiting the middle class. The real estate sector went through a depressed period in the late 90's (as did the wider economy of course). I suspect the coming on stream of massive housing stock in the 80's/90's; Dadora, Umoja, Nyayo Highrise (to an extent Buru) contributed to this state of affairs. I have no evidence though.

Finally considering that 600,000 is still too high for the majority of our people to afford, should we relay tout this as a solution to the housing problem?

Yes, A 600K purchased under the TPA for 25 years with an interest rate of 5% is aprox 4K every month while a 3M under TPA for 25 years is less than 18K every month