The best real estate investors are those who have the rare predicting talent. Investors who have the ability to read market trends and know the dull places that are likely to be very active sooner rather than later.
Ngong town investors who bought the properties two years ago are a good example. The prices at the town have since rocketed as the town rapidly developed within two to three years.
Hezron Ongadi, bought land in Ngong in 2017 when the area was undeveloped with rough roads save for the graded internal roads of the property he purchased. To him, he believed in the planned development projects though it looked like a mirage.
How could the rough Ngong-Kibiko- Suswa Road be tarmacked in less than 2 years? How could the Standard Gauge Railway and Ngong SGR Station be initiated and completed in 2 years’ time? He knew even if the developments would come they would take around 5 years.
Hezron had predicted the trends but did not imagine that the town will be a hot real estate target in two years. At first, he liked the property after carefully listening to the upcoming developments that would make it easier for him to develop the property as he planned on building a home to settle his young family.
When he went to view the land during a free site visit, it took 2 hours to access the property. That was a lot of time. Hezron did not want to settle his family in a town that is two hours away from Nairobi’s central business district.
He bought two plots each measuring 50 x 100 feet at the cost of Ksh 329,000. The property was value-added with a perimeter fence, estate gate and graded access roads. In 2019, he built a 4-bedroom maisonette, settled his family and is now rearing poultry in the remaining section of his property.
Fast forward to two years later, the Ngong area has grown and Hezron notes that the area has developed faster than anticipated. It now takes him less than 30 minutes from Ngong Town thanks to the tarmac roads.
Today, an eight-acre plot in Ngong costs between Ksh 650,000 and Ksh 1.5 million. The Ngong-Kibiko-Suswa road has since been tarmacked and the Ngong SGR station is now complete. Better still, the area is accessible from Kikuyu, Nairobi, Magadi and Ongata Rongai because of the Southern by-pass. These factors are the reasons behind the appreciation of land prices in Ngong.
As you travel from Nairobi CBD to Ngong, you will notice massive construction works ongoing especially Ngong Road which is undergoing expansion. A number of middle-class city dwellers have put up their own houses around Ngong and investors have put up malls and supermarkets. The town is also set to have a Ksh 700M market financed by World Bank and this will increase economic activities.
Reuben Kimani, the Chief Executive Officer, Username Investments notes that his company begun selling plots in Ngong when they were going for as low as Ksh 149,000. In a span of merely two years, the most affordable plot in the area goes for Ksh 650,000.
“Ngong is fast becoming another bedroom for Nairobi City residents. Many people are choosing to invest in Ngong because it is easier to access Nairobi CBD conveniently and on weekends enjoy hiking at Ngong Hills. With the continued growth of the area, Ngong is set to grow bigger and independent from Nairobi and as this happens land will be unaffordable to many. This, therefore, means that it’s a high time to invest in Ngong,” Kimani notes.
Ngong has really grown we moved to NGONG 8years ago, the roads were rough, in Kibiku now the roads have been tarmacked, there is street light and fiber the value of our plot is 6 times more than we bought it. People would ask us why we decided to move to msitu but now we are really enjoying.