If you are planning to acquire an acre piece of land in Upperhill, Parklands, Kilimani and Westlands suburbs of Nairobi, you will at least need to arm yourself with over KSh400 million, with land in Upperhill area being the most expensive, almost hitting the half a billion mark.
- •But buyers with less than KSh100 million can also still own an acre piece of land in Nairobi suburbs such as Runda, Karen, Langata, and Ridgeways, with prices going for KSh91.3 million, KSh67.6 million, KSh83.2 million and KSh91 million respectively.
- •Among the Nairobi satellite towns, Ruaka, Kiambu, Mlolongo, Ngong and Syokimau are among the top five expensive towns with an average value of an acre piece land going for KSh111 million, KSh48.7 million, KSh41 million, KSh35.2 million and KSh34.9 million respectively.
- •On an annual basis, the price of an acre in the suburbs rose by 5 per cent, while in the satellite towns it was up by 11.2 per cent.
Lavington and Spring Valley were ahead of the queue in price growth among suburbs in the first quarter at 4 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively, while Kileleshwa was the only one to record a price decline at a marginal -0.1 per cent.
The average price per acre in suburbs is now at KSh203.7 million, having crossed the KSh200 million mark for the first time in the last quarter of 2023.
“The growth in prices across 17 of 18 suburbs, despite the slowdown in pace in the quarter compared to the last quarter of 2023, shows that the upper end of the market is sustaining demand,” said Sakina Hassanali, Head of Development, Consulting and Research at Hass Consult.
In the towns, Kiserian, Limuru and Ongata Rongai led quarterly price gains at 9.4 per cent, 8.4 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively.
“Satellite towns are driving the revival of land as a competitive asset class with the average annual growth of over 10 per cent. With interest rates projected by the Central Bank of Kenya to fall in coming months, the stable price growth seen over the last two years should make land even more attractive as an asset,” she added.
Satellite towns are now poised to overtake government Treasury Bills in annual returns. On an annual basis, 9 out of 14 satellite towns made double digit price gains, led by Ongata Rongai at 16 per cent.
Developers have also shown a preference for areas whose prices are lower than the satellite town average of KSh28.8 million, as they keep an eye on overall costs due to higher building input prices.
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