Although 2017 is not a leap year, it should be your reap year in real estate business and with just 5 days gone, you still have 360 opportunities to make it rain.
Several property listing firms pointed out in their last year’s quarter reports that real estate was on the brink in all sectors, notably in housing especially in Nairobi’s satellite towns.
In their second quarter report, 2016, the House Price Index reported that there were only 50,000 units to serve a demand of more than 250,000. Unfortunately the demand rises annually.
This means that there is a big gap between demand and supply.
Consequently the government is fighting back the demand. In September, 2016 a tax relief was offered to ‘neutralize’ the demand. President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Finance Act of 2016 into law, it effectively prompted the residential property development sector into action especially in the satellite towns bordering the capital city.
In their 2016 third quarter report, Hass Consult property listing reported that these developments were actually being felt after every four months at a high rate.
Such towns included Ruai, Juja, Ruiru, Kamulu, Thika, Ruiru, Isinya and Malaa just to mention a few. Ruiru was the fastest growing satellite town with land prices going up at a rate of 41%.
NEMA-National Environmental Management Agency released in the same year a list recording that a good number of remarkable architectural structures were underway. They included that Skyscrapers, malls, roads without forgetting high density residential housing on the outskirt of Nairobi city.
The records seen from NEMA had also noted a number of ground breaking projects and also a completion of the previous projects which had begun some years before.
For instance, The Greater Eastern Bypass, linking Thika Road, Kangundo Road and Mombasa was launched in early July. Kamulu housing project was such a groundbreaking police project that became a New Year gift when it was officially opened on 31st, December 2016 by President Uhuru.
Juja Town, made headlines in the dailies due to its unprecedented rise with fine master piece of architecture despite being sandwiched between the fast growing Thika town and Nairobi.The script is not different from other towns bordering the ever fast growing Nairobi.
Such is good news for investors, this news could not have come at a better time than in 2017.
The year of 2016 had been opined by economist to be such a limping leap year in real estate due to the windy Kenyan economic growth. From the look of activities, the year opened up new ventures for real estate investment into 2017.