Ruaka, Ngong, Kitengela post sharp rise in rent prices
House hunters in Ruaka, Kitengela, and Ngong were hit with the highest rent prices in the three months to March as the previously depressed segment emerged from the Covid-19 winter.
Ruaka, an address roughly 15 kilometers from Nairobi CBD saw its apartment market boasts the largest supply, and the rents edge up by 2.9 percent.
In the quarter, apartment rents in Ruaka rose 2.9 percent in the quarter solidifying the bustling position as the largest supplier of apartments across satellite towns in Nairobi and accounting for 3 percent of all advertised units.
The satellite towns of Ngong and Kitengela recorded the strongest growth in apartment rents at 5.5 percent and 5.2 percent respectively, the latest industry survey by property tracker HassConsult shows.
“Ruaka enjoys easy access to the city’s more affluent suburbs, rendering high land values that can only be absorbed on high-density apartment developments. Ruaka has therefore become the largest stockholder of apartments within the satellite as it presents the ability for the working population to enjoy both housing affordability and reduced transportation costs,” said Sakina Hassanali, Head of Development Consulting and Research at HassConsult.
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Ruaka is well served by a network of existing and newly built key roads such as the 21-kilometer Northern Bypass that traverses Runda and Ruiru, as well as the Western Bypass connecting it to the town of Kikuyu.
Within the Ruaka area, one also finds the largest trading center in East and Central Africa, Two Rivers Mall, which provides residents with access to shopping, banking, leisure, and entertainment services among others.
The Village Market, a large shopping, recreation, and entertainment complex is also a few minute’s drive from Ruaka.
The zone is also a prime location for housing for workers within the United Nations offices besides a couple of other embassies in the Gigiri area.
In recent months, Ruaka has experienced a construction boom with Centum Real Estate building 270 residential units at the Two Rivers development complex. Rival Cyton Real Estate has also been developing The ALma, a huge housing project featuring 453 apartments in nine blocks in Ruaka.
At the moment, an acre of land in Ruaka is going for roughly Kes92 million even as Nairobi’s Upperhill remains the most expensive address for land buyers with an acre going for Kes500 million.
Ms. Hassanali added that looking ahead to the Landlord and Tenant Bill, 2021 which if enacted into law will give the government power to cap rent increases on commercial and residential premises could potentially influence the direction of rents.
“It is still too early to say with certainty the impact of the proposed rent control laws, but investors are keeping tabs. Similar laws such as the 2016 Banking Act that aimed at controlling interest rates to support consumers had unintended consequences of reducing credit availability for the market.”
