Rank: Elder Joined: 10/9/2008 Posts: 5,389
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Have just read about Miguna's experience (in his new book) regarding how he purchased land (1/2 acre plot) in Runda and put up a house while still in Canada. There are important lessons for those intending to take the same route. Interesting to note that he bought the plot at just Ksh2.5m 10 yrs ago. This is how narrates it: Quote:....by then I had saved enough to purchase or build a decent
house in one of Nairobi’s most desired neighbourhoods. I resolved to build in
Runda, a tranquil suburb which felt a little like a Nairobi equivalent to Bradford,
near enough yet not too near to the hustle and bustle of the city centre. I had
fallen in love with Runda at first sight. By the time I had inspected the available
plots being sold, I’d made a decision to buy. I signed the agreement of purchase
and sale on the spot and undertook to submit the instalment payments starting
one week from that day, with a further undertaking to complete paying the
Sh2.5m for the half acre plot within six months. Again, that was one of the best
decisions I have ever made. I have never regretted it.
Within six months of signing the agreement of purchase and sale for the
Runda property, I had completed making my payments and was now only waiting
for the delivery of my title deed. By early July, 2003, I had, working alongside an
architect and engineer, devised a plan. And then for the next four years, I would
travel three or four times a year in order to inspect the construction. I was in
Kenya for the groundbreaking ceremony, the foundation being laid, the walls
going up and the roof going on. In time I felt that the tens of thousands of dollars
I had spent travelling back and forth were an investment as they would otherwise
have been lost through theft, fraud and mismanagement.
And so despite a lawyer absconding with funds early on; some theft, pilferage
and misappropriation during the construction; and the distance between Kenya
and Canada, the shell of the house, including the roof, was completed by
September 2004. By the time my family and I had returned to Kenya in
September 2007, the house was almost ready for occupation.
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