Land in Karen, Runda, Muthaiga and other exclusive suburbs in Nairobi are now up for grabs as owners seek to unlock value, according to a property index report released by Hass Consult.
The suburbs have been known to have stable prices over the last three years, with the new trend seen as a move by owners to grab the opportunity to fetch the now perceived stabilised prices.
Upperhill remained the most expensive suburb with land now priced at Ksh550.9 million while Ruaka is the most expensive satellite town with land priced at Ksh81 million per acre.
According to the Head of Development Consulting and Research at Hass Consult Ms Sakina Hassanali, developers in these areas are in turn adding value by optimising space to put up more units on the land.
“These areas have traditionally been prime and land has been hard to get and so when it is put up for sale in the market it is sold, further encouraging more owners to test the market. Development minded investors, on their part, are opting to develop high-end gated communities as opposed to units that occupy large parcels of land,” said Ms Hassanali.
Karen and Langata are the biggest suppliers of advertised land in the Nairobi suburbs, a signal that owners are cashing out to leverage on the stable market prices.
Investor interest in these areas has seen the areas post a double digit asking price increases over a one-year period by 10.1% to Ksh58.2 million for Karen and by 15.7% to Ksh5.9 million for Lang’ata.
Muthaiga and Gigiri are the other old and well-established suburbs that have also seen double digit increase over a one year period.
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Other suburbs that have not been amongst the most exclusive but whose prices have been depressed are also benafiting from shrewd investors looking to get land deals.
Nairobi’s suburbs such as Eastleigh and Nyari have posted an increase in asking prices, a reversal from the previous trend of price drops making the two areas more appealing to investors looking for opportunities to enhance value.
“Asking prices in Eastleigh and Nyari suburbs have been gradually falling on a continued quarterly basis for at least one year signaling that prices had dropped to levels that are now attractive to investors who see potential to unlock value,” added Ms Hassanali.
The reversal in prices has seen Eastleigh emerge as the best performing suburb in the first quarter with asking prices increasing by 7.2% to Ksh278.8 million while Donholm was the top performer on an annual basis with land appreciating by 16.4% to Ksh64.7 million.
Syokimau was the best performing satellite town with asking prices increasing by 5.6% to Ksh21 million while Juja was the best annual performer with prices increasing by 31.1% to Ksh11.4 million.
Asking prices in the 18 Nairobi suburbs increased by 0.7% while the 14 satellite towns recorded a 1% increase in asking price on average.
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