congrats pennywise for this insightful post. its a real eye opener!

@Wakanyugi... Congrats to you as well bro. Takes a lot of patience, perseverance, and dedication - well done! Would you mind sharing with me the pics...same email! Im hoping to start another project later this year as well - 6 unit of 2bed/1bath. And as always, will share the progress with y'all!

I have a concern here for all those who have been following this thread. As stipulated above, the entire development is 280m2. this means that every unit, since they are 4, measures 70m2! converted this equals 752 square feet for a 3 bedroom!!!!!!! This is quite small i should say, standard 3 bedrooms usually range from 110m2 and above!! To get a clear picture of these dimensions as provided above, it then means that a single 3-bedroom unit measures approximately 10 meters X 7 meters!!! This is such a small area to fit a kitchen, washroom, lounge, 2 bedrooms and master bed!

To make it clearer, i live in a 1-bedroom flat in Roysambu measuring 64m2!! it is not logical for my 1-bedroom to be almost equal in size with a 3-bedroom. Kindly clarify on that please!

congratulations on your project. it is quite impressive that you have spent 7.5m to ge a return of 100k monthly ( before taxes). in nairobi to get that kind of return would require an investment of like 18m plus.

Any good plan for a 40 by 60 piece?

i rescaled it, i a now getting 105 sm total! so in total we are looking at 420 sm at a construction cost of kshs. 7.5m which gives Kshs. 17,857 per sm

@shrewed investor,

I was in Kilifi during the holidays, and i noticed that there is lack of serious housing in the town. Its a vibrant town with quite a good number of people in the working class but i noticed that there aren't any flats or apartments to cater for them. I think it would be such a great investment to buy land and develop within Kilifi town!

[quote=young]@All,

Be aware that if your plot is located in a middle income or upcoming high brow area and if your investment objective is for income , it is better to go for terrace maisonettes (duplexes)
rather than 4 flats for the following reasons :-

PROS
(i) Your build up area will be drastically reduced, as you can build TWO OR THREE of 4 bedroom maisonettes on a 1/4 acre plot . The builup area of each will be 0.012Ha ie 120 Square meters or LESS having one visitors room downstairs and 3 bedrooms upstairs etc.
That means you can build two maisonattes on 240 sq meters (0.024 HA) or LESS and 3 terrace masionattes on 360 sqare meters (0.036 Ha) or LESS.

(ii) You use less building materials as you only have one kitchen per duplex, one master bedroom rather than multiple kitchens (per flat ) etc. There will less expenditure on plumbing materials, the slab (decking) area is reduced as part of it is used for the internal staircase etc.

(iii ) Good pricing for your building if you want to sale off in future and you have ample space if you desire to add boys quarters and other utilities like garden /lawn,
carport etc. The add ons increases your rental income.

(iv) You deal with less tenants which reduces the risk of payment default as mostly middle to high income earners will be your likely clients
and you will be dealing with less number of tenants.

(iv) Easier to build in phases as beyond german floor (DPC) and roofing, you can segment the construction by progressing far in one duplex before you continue with the next one.

CONS
(i) Low demand as it only appeals to a particular segment of the society. It has to be
situated in a good secure environment with basic amenities.

(ii) The pricing that is the rental income may be low initially (150% higher than rental cost of a flat) in the first two years but there after the rental income will be 100% or more compared to the rental cost of a flat.
This is not a problem bearing in mind that you spent less to build as compared to building a block of flats so invariable ROI on both initially are the same. With time you can easily achieve ROI of 10 - 20%.


[color=blue]NOTE :- This is only an additional information (might be for the future) not
neccessarily to discourage our friend @Penny-Stocker to continue with his well planned project.


I followed this post religiously.good advice.

I wanted to build apartments in Thika but the county has completely refused to approve the change of use.im thinking of following Young's advice. how many 3 bedroom maisonettes can fit in a quarter ?

Should be cheaper. Things like cement, chuma, mawe, mabati, tiles, mdfs, finishings etc are cheaper in nairobi than kisumu.

Thank you for your responses.