Recently visited an apartment complex on the outskirts of Nairobi that blew my mind away.They are apartments built on 1/8th freehold, on pillars so the ground floor is just for parking. They are slightly similar to the ones below. I counted at least 3 units per floor, 4 floors per block and two blocks connected together. What I found interesting is that the entire area of the 1/8th is completely covered with no space between it and all four sides of the perimeter wall. Is this legal to do? The guy seems to be making a mint as all the apartments are quite spacious inside with nice balconies and 100% occupied. Here I am sweating to build tu-tiny things on one of my 1/8ths kumbe I could maximise on my space and get better value and use of space!

Sad but true. Enyewe no need oversqueezing in the name of greed. Will obey the law and provide a few tiny greenspaces for the totos to jump around in. Too much of a concrete jungle on a plot with no sunshine is not good for their long term health.

Sad but true. Enyewe no need oversqueezing in the name of greed. Will obey the law and provide a few tiny greenspaces for the totos to jump around in. Too much of a concrete jungle on a plot with no sunshine is not good for their long term health. [/quote
Putting up two 2brms and bigger flats that meets all criterion's on the book on 1/8th would be unprofitable with the current economic mix in those estates. @65% ground coverage and setback from boundaries,only three units go and say a bedsitters. May someone propose a reasonably acceptable rent for each unit to meet an acceptable ROI of say 12%pa to a developer.

What is the occupancy like here?

People pay rent of 70k per month in such apartments? Never ever!!!

HUJUMA HII! Kilimani is now officially a slum competing with Donholm, umoja and eventually mwiki and Embakasi pipeline

Shindwe

I estimate the land size on this photo to be 1/2 acre(perhaps less). It seems like there are three apartment blocks with 10 floors each. Each floor seems to contain 2 houses. Therefore this 1/2 acre plot holds 60 houses. Assuming full occupancy by middle class families made up of baba, mama and two totos and a konkodi(all due respect househelps) each house shelters 5 persons.Offcourse, you will have a few houses occupied by upwardly mobile single mothers with one or two totos and others occupied by high flying randy bachelors. In summary lets assume an average of 3 per household totaling 180 persons housed in a 1/2 acre plot. That ladies and gentlemen is what a slum is...Kenyan journalist call such neighborhoods as high-population-density-neighborhoods.Couple this with the number of bars in Kilimani and compare and contrast with pewa street in Umoja estate you will understand what i am talking about.I'd rather take a morgage of 12 millions and settle in the bungalows of the dustbowl known as Kitengela and buy a suzuki alto(23kms per litre) to ferry myself and mama watoto to work daily other than pay 70 ngwanyes and risk dying of kipindupindu or other epidemics common in high density neighbourhoods

Does the dustbowl have connected sewer lines? All I see is pit latrines, septic tanks and salty-water boreholes everywhere. That water table will be contaminated in years to come. There are far more beautiful places you can buy land and settle down wachana na dustbowl. Why would you sink 12 millions in such a place?

most apartments even expensive ones lack
1-enough parking spaces- ideally nowadays you need 1.5 parking spots per bedroom
2-No social spaces- is there an outside area you can just sit read a paper, chat with a neighbor comfortably?
3-Dedicated safe kids area-most Nairobi apartments and estates have roads as play areas with 5kmph children playing signs.
4-Teen friendly spaces (private)- where does your teen kid go when the wife has a chama meeting in the house? in Nairobi chances are
he will be in bad company since the only available play spaces are in schools or churches and are reluctant to allow teens in at any
time.
5-In Kenya if I find my friend sitting on the grass at the road side, i will be very concerned (is he mad) in other countries you find road side seats for resting and just picnics, in Nairobi tell me a place you can go sit on grass that is not uhuru park(people see it a low class park)
6-I see photos above of nice looking units but I see relatively small balconies, we don't value outside spaces ( a client asked me to put a window on all his balconies and open terraces.
7-If you wanted to do a barbecue in those units it's impossible or annoying to neighbours.

but as proceed clients will start asking for this amenities and will move to units that provide them.