Nairobi, KENYA: The 2018 East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) Summit have unveiled the new Hass County Land Prices Report, where it has emerged that land prices had risen by an average 7.37 percent in 2017.
HassConsult Head of Development Consulting Sakina Hassanali gracing the launch on Tuesday said that county land prices had risen by an average 7.37 percent in 2017, compared to a 12.07 percent rise in 2016, suffering a general slowdown on election uncertainty and Kenya’s new interest rate cap.
However, the county survey delivered evidence of ongoing market strength, as well as underlying patterns pushing land prices in sometimes opposite directions.
“Countrywide, infrastructure development continued to drive strong price growth, for many investors, the magical key still remains to follow the roads, ” Hassanali said
Kfir Rusin, EAPI Managing Director said that Local economic growth also continued to drive land prices upwards
“We see clearly from price growth of 12 to 14 per cent in Nakuru and Kisumu last year that areas enjoying an influx of business and finance, and underpinned by robust agricultural economies, were only slowed marginally by the elections and rate cap,” Rusin said.
The report indicated the towns and suburbs that experienced the greatest growth in land prices, and those that suffered falling land prices, finding evidence of pricing cycles playing out within multiple counties.
“From the more than 20 percent surge in land prices in Utange, which delivered the strongest growth of the year on an influx of elite residents vacating Nyali, To a similar movement to Ngata by residents from Nakuru, the data showed shifts to new residential beacons, as intensive development began to take the shine off former hot spots,” Hassanali said.
“Likewise, in tracking the surge in prices in Embakasi, and to a lesser extent Donholm, we see the first signs of the gentrification of inner city areas as congestion and commuter lifestyles elevate the attraction of these areas’ proximity to the workplace.” She added.
The county land survey also identified several spots where land prices appear to have gone up, only to sink thereafter, among them Thika, where land prices rose by more than 30 per cent in 2016, only to fall by more than 4 per cent last year, in the biggest price fall of the year.
“Investors need to be wary of surges that fly over and above any development norm, as spots that will very often suffer subsequent price corrections, or, at the very least, subdued and even depressed pricing for some years to follow, as is the case of Ridgeways in Kiambu,” Hassanali said.
