Top 5 Real Estate Opportunities in Kakamega for local investors and developers to invest in
Opportunities in Kakamega are immense and underutilized. This is especially true in the real estate sector and the case is similar across the region. If you have ever looked around town for decent housing units for either purchase or renting, then you share in this sentiment. And perhaps that presents the perfect opportunity for investors and developers to cash in.
In this article, we share the 5 real estate opportunities and gaps that we’ve noticed where you can never go wrong with. And they’re all property related! Interesting right?
1. Bedsitter Rentals
As we all know, the establishment of a tertiary institution in a town like Kakamega pushes the housing demand way higher than expected. In this particular case, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) has not only brought in more need for decent family units for the employees and lecturers. It has also created a demand of over 10,000 housing units for its students. Both regular and part-time students who choose to stay around the university. And what better way than to invest in affordable bedsitters that rent within a range of Ksh. 5,000 – 7,000 a month!
Well, you may be wondering how many such units can go on a 50*100 plot. Our team’s estimations put the number at around 12 units. 6 on each side of the plot. Given they would rent for an average of Ksh. 5,000 net of taxes, you will comfrotably make Ksh. 60,000 every passing month. What’s more, you can access project financing and let the units repay the loan themselves. There’s never a better time to talk to your banker about this!
Furthermore, this is just the beginning. Think about the many young graduates and youths in town looking for affordable but quality bedsitters and studios in town. Start creating housing solutions for them. It pays, trust me.
Now consider what is possible if you teamed up with your friends and investment partners to develop an apartment block made of bedsitters alone! You could end up housing over 100 tenants in a very short time. It is possible.
2. Buying and selling of serviced plots
Kakamega is most likely the only major town in the leagues of Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu, Thika, Machakos among others where there are no serviced plots for sale that are ready-to-build. Generally speaking, serviced plots are lands which have been prepared in terms of connection to the mains electricity, water supply, quality fencing done and good access roads for the benefit of the buyer.
The concept behind it is that a prospective buyer can start building their home immediately on purchase of the property. They don’t have to worry about anything else. This is usually referred to as value addition in real estate and it pays in gold.
With value addition, a plot that would utmost fetch Ksh. 100,000 for a 50*100 can end up bringing you not less than 300,000 on the lower side. For more on this, we’re happy to help.
3. Retail Shopping Spaces
Retail outlets development is another essential form of real estate opportunities in Kakamega that are highly undertaken. Have you ever tried searching for vacant spaces where you can setup your shop in town? It’s worse than getting a rental house actually. Interestingly, the deficit can be attributed to several things.
Ideally, the main reason is the lack of clear zoning of the town. When you take a stroll along the Kakamega Mumias Road (Kenyatta Avenue), you’re met with several loading trucks. This is what happens when you have godowns and loading bays in town. Like you would wonder why there’s a hardware in Kakamega CBD, Several Wholesaling sections for FMCG prodfts that could comfortably be in the outskirts and still get business.
The repercussions of the same is where the small retail businesses that should instead be donning these areas are pushed further away from the CBD hence hurting the local money cashflows. Another challenge being the unnecessary traffic snarl ups occasioned by the loading trucks on both sides of the town’s key streets and avenues.
As an investor and a developer, here’s where your opportunity lies. It’s high time you considered either individually or as a team, pooling funds together to develop retail Shopping Spaces concepts where someone can drop in and get all their retail Shopping needs catered for. How would this look? Simple. You can either do temporary structures by use of used containers or developed establishment where local businesses can rent units for their businesses. Try to make sure that you attract all the diversity in products and services provided as you can. There’s gold in that.
4. Property Consultancy Services
Property consultancy is the third real estate opportunity that requires zero money. Just lots of learning, researching and most importantly, experience. So do you think you understand the real estate market in the counties of Kakamega, Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia and beyond? Do you know how the property conveyancing work? Can you handle land succession issues? How about property transfer processes? If you do and work on your licencing by the Estate Agents Registration Board (EARB), you could make a great fortune here.
Here is how it works. So just as you, there are many people looking for real estate opportunities in Kakamega and the larger region. They could be based here in Kakamega or maybe across the country. Besides, the diaspora community will come calling. For such, You will need to offer guidance through the whole process from property prospecting, price negotiations, property sales and transfers, development all the way to property management. Should they choose to go all the way . And you can make your money all the way as well.
5. Building Off-Plan Houses for Sale
Off-Plan housing is the most ignored of the real estate opportunities in Kakamega and Western Kenya. With offplan housing, Property investors and developers usually design an estate concept of several houses on a piece of land. Then they subdivide the land in various plots in proportion of the houses they plan to build. Once the design and subdivision is done, they package the same as an investment project for prospective investors to buy into it.
Majorly, the developers may develop apartments or townhouses that investors can buy once completed. However, there’s also an arrangement where the prospective buyers can make prepayments for the houses they want while the houses are being built over a period of 6 months or more. In several other instances, the investors can choose to just buy the land and develop the houses on their own from a selection of house designs already picked by the project developers.
Such a project is possible in Kakamega. The only question is when will we start seeing these real estate opportunities in Kakamega being taken advantage of?
