@Pablo, the best investment to make is the one that you are damn good in. It appears you are damn good at Property so do not stray too far.

If you believe you can beat interest rates, leverage (rather than sell) the Property and dabble in the new venture.

Bwana @Pabio,

Let me start by saying that you can still
multiply your income further within the realm of real estate.
What is important is that you should do your due diligence with regards to legality and authenticity of your transaction.
I am assuming you do not attach any emotion to the completed house and that you have a fairly good cash flow at least to survive minimally without touching the proceeds of the sales of the house. Here are the 4 options .

(i) Re-Invent the Wheel

Sale off this one use the proceeds to position again ie buy another plot , a quarter or one eight in a ripe or semi ripe good suburb,ing on and build leveraging on your experience to offer for sale. You can finish one at a fast pace before starting another still with the same
money. On the long term the 30M you put in will fetch you circa 50M as I reckon you would have improved in your skills aka Question for the architect.

(ii) Buy Into Semi Finished or Uncompleted Buildings

I hope this is applicable in Kenya as I am talking from my country (Nigeria) perspective ?
Some real estate developers do sale semi completed buildings either at the DPC (German Floor) stage or the roofing stage without finishing. Do your mathematics , buy a few and use your skills to complete with a minimal cost
and put it on offer for sale.


(iii) Buy Some Plots in Promising Suburb

As guide ensure that L(location), I(Infrasture)
and D (high demand ) is in place, pick a few
at least an acre, finish all the legal documentation, then go to sleep. In a years time
you should be able to multiply your 30M to at least 40M.


(iv) Go Solo in Plot Buying
Solo here doe not necessarily mean you will not involved experts at a fee to work hand in hand with you.
Move further to promising and well sort after suburbs, you know Kenya more than me. Think of Konza City, Thika road suburb, Kiambu, Kitengela,
Isinya, Lamu port vicinity, get a few acres and actually produce an estate with good layout with
planned infrastructure, carve out some area to build and sale and sale, and put the other side on offer for sale as plots.

My accountant friend started with option (a)
in 2007 he has stepped up or graduated to option (d) and he is now into estate development full time and employs professionals as suburdinate to assist in the spirit of job creation and entrepreneurship.

He started with one estate (Royal Palm Estate),
having combination of plots and build up area, he now controls 3 estates.

www.strategicshelter.com



I hope my 2 cents helps. You may not buy into any of the ideas but it will expand your scope of reasoning to come to a reasonable decision.

Best Regards

Let me add @Pabio that should you decide to choose option 1 ensure that you choose a choice location to build so as to get a far higer return on your product.
Since building material is the same the difference is the location location and location of the land.

It makes more sence to buy a 7M- 15M plot in south C or Eastleigh (hope spelling is correct) or embakassi,
or down town Parklands /westlands or Gigiri suburbs and build as long as the balance can build the house.
This will give you a ready market after finishing your project to translate your 30M to 50 - 60M.
In essence spend more on the land so that the finished product should appeal to the middle / upper
market segment even better the previous location.
This is a semi passive way of investing in real estate as I reckon just like me you will not like to do it full time.

I have always found real estate cumbersome and unnecessarily high risk... I dont think its worth the hassle and stress..

If i invested 10million in a house today and rented it out for 50k per month I would earn a maximum of 600k a year with little room for increment in subsequent years and plenty of running costs! (dont forget STRESS!!)

If i invested 10million in shares of bluechips like KCB, BAT, HFCK etc I would receive a cheque of 1.2million at the end of the year with zero running costs, besides the 5% withholding tax...

Dividend growth is dependent on profit growth while rent growth is dependent on inflation

We all know which grows at a faster rate!!

Why would/should i waste my time in real estate business??

@ Guru267! It all depend son investment strategy. if I invested 10M in real estate for rent purpose, it will earn me at least 100k per month net of tax and other costs. I have done stocks individually and as an organisation and am in agreement with your observation. However, stocks keep fluctuating unlike real estate. I wonder what risk you are talking about, please explain further. Quick example: bought my first plot in 2004 at 4ook, sold it 3 years later at 1.8m, bought half acre at 3.8M in prime location in 2009, it's now fetching 15M, risk free, hassle free. All in all it depends on the strategy. For instance buying an apartment in Kileleshwa for 15M does not make sense to me; instead I will invest the 15M elsewhere (in real estate) where the 15M will multiply by 2 in one year or so. When the fundamentals are sound, real estate is more stable

@ Guru267! I could be delusional but I wonder who said he would buy a house at 10M and rent it out at 100K? The language used is very basic even for my PP3 daughter.

Pablo how about partnering with landowners who do not have the cash required to develop it? South C, around Madina and Elegance has some nice empty lots of land.

@ Pablo, I have re-read the post above and still can't believe you've decided to sell it, but i'm sure you have evaluated and looked at the pros and cons....that is one good house, especially with the promising developments in the area and proximity to the main road.

PROBLEM OF GOOD LAND LOCATION

@Pabio & @Luttz,
What I will suggest might be mere theory as I am not on ground there.

There is an average asking price for good locations and the prices are very prohibitive.
I know and believe there are some opportunities when you keep some ears on the ground and interact, this will give you some leads, do not give up.

Most high brow areas have adjoining suburbs which are not as highly priced like the main area.
I was privy to one Mzee that brought 1/2 acre Rongai not far from Bomas land for sale to Faida Investment bank for 5M. I do not know how genuine it is but that is where conducting due diligence and negotiating comes in.
You should not sale your house, emplore these possibilities, encounter one or two missed opportunities t0o be encouraged to sell your house.
I strongly believe this is possible if you keep your ears on the ground. This involves interacting with estate developers, the middle level work force and at times parting with 200 bob
or 500 for Unga !!!.
Equally analyze @accelriskconsult suggetion.

Here in Nigeria it was by intearaction and leads
that helped me to secure a land worth 15M for 7M.
This land is directly behind a high brow area.
I went to estate developer that market land in that vicinity, they asked me what is my budget, I answered 5M, they bursted into laughter, that the minimum land I can see in that vicinity is 20M ie
4 times my budget. I called one of them that looks friendly parted with 750 bob equivaent, got his cell phone number. 3 weeks later he called me for an opportunity closeby to the estate plot they have fully sold and the asking promo price was 7M !!!. I did my due diligence made 50% deposit in Dec 2011. In Jan 2012 the price of the land has been jerked up to 15M, had it been I did not make the deposit they would not have accepted 7M because of demand.
As at now the same land goes for 20M. Why ? Because our MPs swooped on the land with ready CASH in March 2012.A completed duplex house there goes for 70M.

All my dealings on land here in Nigeria and neighbouring Ghana and even far away Uganda has always been by leads from friends or UNGA!!!

You can now understand why I said confidently thatyou can find one within a close vicinity of a high brow suburb irrespective of the high price they are calling.

Stocks @Guru267,
It is difficult to convince a core stock person to real estate. It is as hard as converting a christian to muslim.
We have one local adage :-
If you see the stupid pig using mouth to dig ground, it is seeing something other animals are not seeing "

I have had a good ride with testimonies with real estate because I did my research and was convinced to plunge into it just 4 years ago.
I will continue to combine real estate with stocks.

@pablo hfck is putting up 3 bedroom units in komarock ph 5, prices start at 6m when complete and rents can peak upto 40k/M, with the kind of cash your talking getting maybe 4-5 units, rent them out for about 3yrs while they appriciate in value then sell at maybe 8.5M and you could make 12.5M profit+rental income over the three years, ad say thats a tidy return for a 30M investment in under 5 years if all things go well