The boom in Kenyas upmarket residential property market may be over, but trendy apartments and houses are still sprouting up in Nairobis affluent districts. The traditionally well off Northern suburbs, Gigiri and Runda, are still growing, according to Steven Simiyu, an architect at U Design Architects, but the new hotspots for swanky apartments are in Kileleshwa and Kilimani. They are close to town, is his simple explanation for their popularity.

Some 70% of all new housing in Kenya has been targeted at upper-middle class clientele. The evidence is all around in areas such as Lavington, Karen, and even in land starved and overdeveloped Westlands.

As one of the leading residential architectural firms in Nairobi, U Design is well placed to observe the fashionable trends in housing. While urban migration has been putting pressure on large towns and cities for many decades, it was only in 2002 that Kenyas residential market felt an upsurge.

Kenyas political climate was one of the major factors slowing investment in the housing sector. Before 2002 construction was slow, there was a big deficit in construction, people were scared to invest, says Mr Simiyu.

The transition from Daniel Arap Mois long rule to a new government under current President Mwai Kibaki established new confidence, and money from abroad poured into the property sector. That is what sparked the change, explains Simiyu.

Drawn by the promise of high returns, most architects and property developers rushed to sate the wealthier appetites for well-designed houses.

In around 2003-2004 you could probably sell an apartment drawing before the build, now we have to build then people will buy. Demand was so much that we could just make plans and then people would start buying, claims Mr Simiyu.

Along with other residential architects, David Sifuma, an architect at Genesis Architects, has seen a general trend in housing style.

Having worked on exclusive properties in Runda, Karen, Parklands, as well as villa estates and an ambassadorial residence in Lavington, he believes that most clients like the look of a natural stone wall combined with a red tile roof.

I wouldn’t say that there is a style in fashion at the moment…but people are getting to appreciate that design more, he says.

Mr Simiyu also agrees. The main things are pitched roofs, flat roofs are now rare…However, we find even here in town, houses and apartments look very different, we don’t fix ourselves to one style…it’s very individual.

However, many newly built properties are now standing empty. Fickle fashion trends are not to blame, rather economic downturn, domestically and globally, has slowed demand. The affects of the post-election violence in January, high inflation, within the context of a global financial meltdown, has lead to an oversupply in the upper bracket housing market.

With half of all middle-to-upper class properties bough with mortgages, many new buyers are finding themselves squeezed out as banks tighten their lending regulations.

Around 15% of houses in Kenya are bought with overseas remittances. These contributions are also waning, with Central bank figures signifying a drop in remittances from $44,137 million in August to $36,567 million in September, the lowest rate since 2006.

Demand comes when there is a lot of money to be lent, explains Mr Simiyu.

The post-election violence definitely affected business, prices have gone up and inflation is

rising, we expected there would be some slowdown.

Much of the focus has now turned to developing low to middle-income housing. Architects are now getting the bulk of their residential projects through property developers keen on large block housing construction.

Currently U Design Architects largest assignment is a 500 house estate in Langata. In a similar vein, Genesis Architects are working on a residential slum upgrade in the same area, as well as a decanting site housing scheme in Kibera. As well as this, 80% of their work in the past three years has been provided by the United Nations.

According to Mr Sifuma it is usually individuals, rather than large property developers who come to Genesis Architects with pricey single residential projects.

For a person to be informed about an architect you have to have a bit of money. Nevertheless, he is optimistic that Kenya is slowly warming to designers and stylistic homesteads. The market is also now getting to know the value of an architect, more people are getting exposed to the value of a consultant.

*"Propertyleo - Kenyas No1 Property website serving the Kenyan Real Estate
sector"*.