Double A, tis only a matter of time before you "see the light," flee those millions of one bedroom bedsitters in Kili and join us in DC.
and when you do tutakuwa tukisimama hapa to welcome you without a "we told you so." Come baby come

So sad that kilimani is now going the bedsitter way like githurai. Why are we degrading all our neighborhoods? The only place the middle class can get proper middle class housing i.e a 4bdrm house with own compound, is huko dustbowl.

I think kenya is the only country where doctors, lawyers, bankers, professors etc live in apartments, including studio apartments aka bedsitters. The situation is different elsewhere. Such 15 floor bedsitters and 1bdrms are meant for the poor elsewhere, not the middle class.

Indeed. I told wukan this bitter truth a long time ago and he disputed me furiously with very hot words!
Nairobi core is getting more and more cramped simply because the cost of land there has reached astronomical levels.
If you buy a 1 acre plot in Westlands for 600m, clearly you cannot build a maisonette with a lovely garden and space for the totos to enjoy hapo because it would not make economic sense.
Even if it were built, if it were to be resold, the buyer would still demolish it and build apartments (and from the article above..now bedsitters )
Because for that price, you simply have to get a commensurate return on investment.
Nairobi leafy burb apartment living gets old very fast . Again, I told wukan the same thing two years ago.. cramped space, service charge defaulters manenos, kids making noise 24/7, concrete jungles, no privacy, loud music by some neighbours, the list is endless.
In all the developed countries, the rich leave these cramped living spaces and move out to the burbs where space is golden and kids can ride their bikes in wide open spaces.
with the rapid development of infrastructure ("long commutes" was always a favourite excuse of those who did not want to come to DC) it is inevitable that more of the Nairobi middle classes will flood into DC and similar suburbs.
I am very pleased whenever I pass by Mombasa road and see the construction of the mlolongo to Waiyaki way overpass in full steam. When done I will be driving from Jewel in the Crown, DC to Westlands in 15 minutes tops! I can enjoy my Java, fanya shopping and be back in DC again in no time nyweee on that smooth expressway!
Bottom line the longer the naysayers stay away from DC the WORSE it will be for them when they wake up one day and find they are surrounded by bedsitter highrises even in the leafy burbs of Nai and have also been permanently priced out of DC's lovely wide open spaces Those who have invested in DC will be smiling all the way to to their beautiful houses as well as the bank! Those who haven't will be gnashing teeth bitterly and we will be here to console them with soft "We told you so's"

Wukan,
While this may be true for the millenials, please remember that youth is as fleeting as mild fog. One can only live a boehmian life renting a bedsitter, riding a bike and living like a vagabond with no roots for so long. As their youth fades so will these tastes. I remember living in student hostels as a first year student in uni. Very exciting at first! Then came the noisy roomatees, lack of space to store your items. Hanging clothes on and outside windows. Very little light and fresh air..it was a nightmare! So called "small living spaces" only sound good on paper for so long. Once a person hits 30, jameni they have no business living in a bedsitter or cramped apartment unless they have no other choice.

Milimani Kitengela 1/4 we are talking about between 3 to 4.5 metre depending on the plot and surrounding amenities.
If you bought in 2010 you were very wise because I bet they were going for so much less back then.
Excellent point on working from home. So true. This attachment to Nairobi core is being shaken out of its foundations.
I thought I would miss Nairobi core when I first moved to DC. Wapi??. These days I can stay as long as 3 months at a go without stepping foot in Nairobi core because everything I want (and even more) is right here in DC.

Olturoto price depends on how many KM in you are from Namanga rd as well as amenities, STIMA especially. Wanunuzi wako wengi bro. Get you a good DC based agent and if the price is right you will get buyers.

In Tokyo they stay in the cities till they die. In this covid period with time on my hands I have been watching those youtube walkaround videos of Tokyo and I see old people on bikes or walking. Lots of bike lanes in that metro. City living is not for everyone but those who've been here for long just want to stick to the old tried ways. Nowadays even inter-generation living is considered normal in older city estates like South B, South C, Pangani Eastleigh, Parklands. Even Uhuru has raised his kids in the same address he grew up in. At some point you settle in the community and get on with life. As you age you realize people are not bothered with your life as much as you think. Those impressions and keeping up with Joneses don't matter that much.
At some point kids leave the nest and older folks have to move to smaller living space near hospitals and other amenities. What's the point of building a big mansion which you won't need in 20 years once the kids are off to college? You might also get divorced in your 40s or 50s and if you don't have your small thingira where you can retreat to, you will walk these streets talking to yourself.

For now the demand is for those studios and 1bd. They are selling like hotcake especially the ones near the CBD and westlands.

Comparing Nairobi and Tokyo is a facade and a big lie.

@wukan, great example. I live in Tokyo and can attest to what you ascribe herein. However, we tend to have a different cultural orientation to city life. We have a duality between city living and "home/pacho/dala" whereby city life is seen as temporary.

Checkout Kipeto wind farm in Kajiado (Kiserian) - 100MW

https://twitter.com/mwar...275336006758273024?s=08