Italy tycoons topped the country's key prime residential property ownership, according to the 2023 Knight Frank Wealth Report.
The real estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy firm indicated that Italian tycoons had outmuscled other foreigners by deepening their investment, especially in luxurious rental houses.
According to the report, Italy dominated, followed by UK, Netherlands and Belgium.
Italian tycoons have invested in prime exquisite lounges, restaurants, vacation homes and rental mansions along Kenya’s Coastal strip.
In 2021, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report revealed that Malindi had morphed into a little Italy town.
The BBC report indicated that their settlement and investment at the coast was informed by the opening of the Italian-run Broglio Space Centre.
First Italian settlers in Malindi included engineers and scientists who fell in love with the place and ventured into property investments.
Besides Italians, the Knight Frank Wealth Report also ranked New Zealand, US and France as top foreign investors in prime residential rental property in the country.
UK, US, Belgium and France tycoons majorly pump their money into office spaces, data centres and warehouses, according to Knight Frank’s 2022 second-half report.
Explaining the report’s significance, Knight Frank indicated that it was key to informing future investment trends.
However, the real estate agency did not give a breakdown and property owned by the international tycoons in the country.
“Understanding global property ownership is key to anticipating future investment trends,” the report read in part.
Besides investment in key prime residential rental property picking up, Knight Frank projected that investors would channel their money in industrial logistics, student housing, data centres, offices and hotels.
Knight Frank Wealth Report respondents also projected that tycoons would channel their funds to passion investments such as art, watches, wine, classic cars, jewellery, luxury handbags, rare whisky bottles, coloured diamonds and coins in 2023.
“The Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII), which tracks the value of 10 investments of passion, rose by a healthy 16 per cent during 2022, comfortably beating inflation and outperforming the majority of mainstream investment classes, including equities and even gold,” the report read in part.
“Art was the top performer, rising by 29 per cent,” it added, pointing at a paradigm shift in investment policies.
