sometimes time does fly. just the other day, i was blogging on my dec holidays and now new holidays are here! the last month ended with me getting my car fixed. i dread going to the mechanic. apart from the long hours, i dread the fact that they always (without fail) lie to me. even on something i thought i knew. so i always wait until i cant wait any longer for those funny noises to be fixed. but i pride myself for keeping the service mileage clean. this last weekend was no exception. i went to the mech to be lied to and my money to be eaten. but on the lighter side, since my car was admitted (for a few hours) i took liberty to walk from ngara all the way to KICC for the home expo. the walk wasn't as tiring as i thought. there was enough motivation. on foot Nairobi is indeed beautiful!
in fact i feel there is a conspiracy against men these days. all the women look beautiful. they also look pretty much the same. either same tight jeans or same stretch trousers, all of them look pretty. does it mean all of a sudden the not soo good looking women have disappeared into thin air or is it a conspiracy of the fashion houses against men? every woman now seems to have a well formed GMB (to a great extent) and they walk as if they are dancing to some sweet internal music. the dance-walk entertained me till the expo.
i noticed that the expo, was not as well attended as in the years before, almost all developers are connected in one way or another to villa care. most developers have not broken ground 2 years since i first saw them in 2005. they are still promising like they do that the units would be ready in 10 months time. curiously most units were already sold. most developers talked of 50 % , 70 % and even 90% sold. so rush while stocks last! thats what they said last year and the year before. i was hoping to get an individual selling his digz or serious agents selling affordable housing ready for occupation but i couldn't get any. any blog readers out there know anyone? Please hola
after that i made a real big mistake to go watch norbit. why does eddy murphy keep doing that to his career? when i was young and a budding actor, my friend and director told me to never ever be found near any cartooning. those days it was fashionable to imitate ojwang or vitimbi , all you needed to do to become a star was imitate luo accent with broken kiswahili. my director/friend kodhek told me that it was cheap fame which would damage my acting career. I thought dream girls helped eddy murphy but i must say norbit just trashes all the gains. it was simply a stupid movie.
kenyan home expos leave more , if not alot to be desired, i dont know somehow they always dissapoint me,variety always lacks and as you said its always same old.as for more beautiful women...ebu just enjoy while it lasts.i havent watched norbit, but yeah, everybodys saying that eddie murphy just nashed. sigh, someone needs to give him a good movie.
ReplyDelete@min shady, what do you mean when it lasts? i hope its not going to end any time soon!
ReplyDeleteThe reeal estate guys r still unable to sell those CGI photos that masquerade as real houses.Too many people have been burnt by paying mortgages on Architectural drawings that will be ready in 2 months 'to move in'
ReplyDeleteI have lots of interest in housing but info seems mixed.
ReplyDeleteWould you say that home construction or property development is good biashara at this time? Are there buyers? In what segment of the market do we have the most buyers?
Coz according to The Nation paper most buyers are/were in upmarket neighbourhoods Lavi, kile and such.
@Anon:the worst thing about fl;ats is that they turned the skyline/ambience of places like kileleshwa to look like Umoja and parts of Thika road,with the only exception that the compounds of and cars of the formewr are newer and neater.
ReplyDeleteIf u lived in Kile in the 1990s when the matatus ended @ 8p.m. u would hate the flats
@anon, i think housing makes good investment only if 1. its long term and 2. its large scale. if you are building a house for as an investment then it makes sense to build a number of them and cash in on economies of scale. those areas you mentioned are preferred due to historical reasons. but as pesatu has said, that is fast approaching history as well.
ReplyDelete@pesatu, apart from that, the facilities are really stretched. these areas were not meant for tenements am told water is constantly a problem not to mention traffic jam, electricity etc. however early birds have really cashed in on the area. i saw a one bedroomed house with a small kitchen and small lounge going for 20K rent. doesn't really make sense does it?
Right now the RE market in Nairobi is overpriced. At today's price's, the ROI is less than 5%, though you are likely to get some good capital gains.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I entered the market when the units and the lot sizes were much larger. Thanks to the expatriates in Kenya, the older and better apartments in Kileleshwa command a monthly rent of 55,000/= upwards paid quarterly in advance.
With a housing shortage in Kenya, its hard to go wrong with RE investments.
Nice to have you back!
ReplyDeletessembonge: Why would you expect capital gains if you buy at such high prices/low returns?
BTW, I am comparing RE in Kenya vs 15-yr T-Bond....
Of course, buying today & waiting 20 years will see capital gains!
Odegle - Nice to have you back after the holiday hiatus!
ReplyDeleteCT, Several years ago I bought RE in Kenya. The fact that the rent has hardly increased over the years is alright because property prices have doubled. Even though today's valuations are high, I believe RE will continue to fetch a high premium in Nairobi.
ReplyDeleteThe same is happening the world all over; Mumbai, New York, London, etc.
its true that RE will fetch decent returns as far as appreciation is concerned. However that angle brought in by coldi disturbs the waters. if you compare the 15 year bond at 14.5% . plus remember that you must discount the appreciation in value of that house. if you used mortgage then it would not help much
ReplyDelete