Developers are likely to quickly move in following available land in exclusive suburbs like Karen and Lavington/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 26 – Land owners in exclusive suburbs are now offloading properties motivated by optimum prices and demand in the market.
According to the second quarter Property Index by Hass Consult, Investors are now shifting to old suburbs as they have higher potential to unlock value in previously under supplied areas.
The report states that Karen had the highest supply of advertised land amongst the 18 Nairobi suburbs followed by Lavington while Eastleigh was the best performing suburb over the quarter, a reversal from its persistently sluggish growth over the last couple of quarters.
“Ten years ago, if I sold a property in Karen, within six months, it would be so much more, so I’d have a lot of sellers’ remorse. But because now the prices have been stable for two years, land owners now feel like the price appreciation has stopped so it’s the perfect time to sell this land and they won’t have sellers remorse in a couple of months as land prices won’t go up by the huge limbs that it did previously,” Hass Consult Head of Development Consulting and Research Sakina Hasanalli told Capital FM Business.
According to the report, Syokimau was the best performing satellite town over the quarter while Juja ranked top on an annual basis.
“Upperhill is the most expensive suburb with land now priced at Sh550.9 million an acre while Ruaka is the most expensive satellite town with land priced at Sh81 million per acre,” the report indicates.
The average value for land in the 18 Nairobi suburbs has gone from 30.3 million in December 2007 to 186.1 million in June 2017.
Hasanalii says land has outperformed other asset classes by a huge margin.
“Sh1 million invested at the end of 2007 would have been worth Sh8.13 million if invested in land in Nairobi’s 14 Satellites, Sh6.15 million if invested in land in Nairobi’s 18 Suburbs, Sh2.29 million if invested in property (The Hass Sales Composite Index, All Properties), Sh2.26 million if invested in bonds and Sh1.19 million if invested in savings and only Sh0.64 million if invested in Equities,” the report indicates.
