The Hass Property Index has revealed that most Kenyans prefer to stay in detached or standalone houses, with statistics pointing towards increased demand for them over the last year.
The surge in detached house buying was area-specific, with prices continuing to rise significantly in the Runda, Ridgeways, Loresho, Lavington, Karen, and Muthaiga suburbs, and the Athi River, Ruiru, Tigoni, Juja, and Kiserian satellite towns, but falling in other areas in and around the city.
For example, in Runda, a surge in demand led to house prices rising four per cent in 12 weeks, up 15.3 per cent on the year. This was also seen in Athi River, where the rise accelerated to 4.3 per cent in the third quarter, achieving 4.9 per cent for the year.
A detached house is a standalone, free-standing residential building that is not joined to any other house and is typically surrounded by its own land, such as a yard.
Changes in the detached house market influenced rental prices, which fell by 1.6 per cent in Q3, compared to Q2, and 1.3 per cent over the year.
According to the report, the ending of large aid flows into the country prompted expatriate departures that reduced demand for rented detached houses.
However, where in previous periods of expatriate exit, from 2012, and during Covid, rising vacancies led to falling rental and sales prices as landlords exited by selling, this time, the scale of local demand for detached houses continued to drive up sales prices, even as rentals fell.
Following detached houses were semi-detached houses, which experienced a 2.9 increase in price over the course of the year. This was compared to a 0.7 per cent increase in price over the past quarter.
A semi-detached house is a single-family home that shares one common wall with an adjoining house. This is different from a detached house, which has no shared walls, and a terraced house, which shares walls on both sides.
Apartments, despite their growing rate of construction, experienced the least level of demand, reflected in the 1.5 per cent increase in price over the past year.
However, apartments in Lang’ata experienced the highest quarterly increase in sales price, recording a 4.4 per cent surge in price over the last quarter. On the other end, prices of apartments in Upper Hill and Westlands dropped, recording a quarterly and annual dip of 2.6 and 13.2 per cent, respectively.
Nonetheless, the report noted that for apartments, variable price growth driven by new stock coming to market delivered overall price stability.
“Rent rose most quickly in areas such as Parklands and Riverside, with Parklands rents up by 12.5 per cent in the last year, as newer rentals have driven up the average, while rents and apartment prices in Upper Hill have dipped based on older stock,” the report read.
Overall, the report revealed that the surge in house demand, which began in late 2023, slowed down in most areas, accelerating only in Athi River, Ruiru, and Tigoni, suggesting a move to better-value properties and some exhaustion of the demand in many other areas.
