Since 2012, a rising number of high income earners cutting across banking, agriculture, health and education have powered growth in Kenya’s property market, with the industry experiencing increased uptake of detached houses, semi-detached units as well as apartments.

While the country experienced a rise in the number of high earning individuals in key segments of the economy, a new report by property tracker HassConsult shows Kenya saw a dip in the number of expatriates seeking to rent or own high-end homes, a phenomenon which was offset by a steady uptick in domestic demand.

In the financial services sector for instance, HassConsult’s The Kenyan Residential Property Market report notes that up to 30,000 bankers were classified as high earners [getting salaries of over KES100,000pm] as of 2021, offering them the opportunity to access mortgages, and effectively giving the property market, a “wave of new buyers.”

Additionally, as of 2021, “the education sector accounted for over a fifth of the country’s high earners, delivering significant demand. The sector’s GDP rose by 38.15 percent between 2020 and 2024, with over 13 percent of its employees classified as high earners.”

In equal measure, HassConsult study shows that Kenya’s health sector has churned an impressive number of high income earners, with statistics showing that there were 36,000 top earners in 2021. 

Also offering a “wave of new buyers” was trade subsector, which churned out 45,000 wealthy individuals—and potential home hunters.

“Agriculture has also been a significant driver of property demand, with the sector accounting for over 34,000 high earners by 2021,” HassConsult’s survey notes in part.

It adds: “Together, these professional and commercial sectors have delivered a volume of demand that has far outweighed the decline in international [expatriates] numbers.”

Exits of high earners

“In 2024 and 2025, while the foreign exits depressed rentals, the sales prices for houses continued to rise strongly, due to the scale of demand from domestic owner occupiers,” the study notes.

Since 2011, Kenya has experienced massive exits of high earners working in foreign missions and expatriate levels with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data showing that permits for internationals decreased by 72.6 percent between 2012 and 2016.

“This was caused both by departures on stricter enforcement and economic pressures and by conversions to citizenship by long-term citizens.

“This was followed by a sequence of foreign withdrawals, with many diplomatic missions downsizing from 2016 onwards, exits due to COVID lockdowns, and most recently, in 2024 and 2025, wide spread aid cuts and the closure of significant proportion of international NGOs.”

While releasing the report on Tuesday, HassConsult co-CEO Sakina Hassanali noted that while the number of expatriates in Kenya has reduced sharply over the last 10 years, rents for detached houses have nosedived. Similarly, the selling prices for detached houses decreases as more and more landlords sell up.

“When rental yields fall, as they have in many markets, landlords often sell their properties, so that they can earn more from their capital in other assets, like stocks, shares, bonds, or even cattle,” noted Hassanali.

However, the planned shift of United Nation’s offices such as the UNICEF head offices from New York to Nairobi along with the offices of UN Women, and the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, is projected to yield an additional 2000 expatriates to the largest city in East Africa, further stirring growth in property markets.

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