1] You cannot compare bonds and t-bills to real estate. The former have no capital appreciation!

2] Rental house bought on mortgage make NO financial sense

3] Rental houses bought fully built for cash make LITTLE financial sense

4] Rental houses self-built with mortgage make MORE financial sense

5] Rental houses self-built with own cash make A LOT of financial sense

@chiaroscuro

You nailed it...I just wish we had more pple like you in Wazua..

Thanks, that really awesome..

Why do I get the feeling people are just murking around here for to elicit debate and not in need of advice...mmhh..@sel....what do you think!!

Its actually been a while since I came to wazua!

Anyway i've been in the property business from my university days, and one thing I profited immensely from is levereging. But i've seen people going bankrupt from the same, the key is having a positive cash flow and back up strategy for worst case scenario.

From your initial post i see you have around 7.5 m in cash. My advice to you is to go for the sucasa apartment and the 4 ways villa.

With this option you'll need a loan of around 10 M, with monthly repayments of around 180k for a 10 yr loan. your rent should be able to cover half your repayment, and judging from location as OZ i assume its australia, sending back around 1k AUD shouldn't be a daunting task.

As for suraya, they are okay...you'll get what you pay for.

Real estate always feels expensive when you buy it, but when you look back 10 years later its always a sound decision.

Thanks for the feedback about Suraya...Mortgage option is good..but kinda put me in stretched and more vulnerable....What i wanted to find out..is it really worth put myself in such a position? or are there better ways of doing it?

Lastly from one of your post, you move back from UK to Kenya to establish property development business..how is it working for you mate?

@Kausha

I am always up for constructive and informative session about investments...there is so much that we can learn from each other, but ultimately we make our decisions...At this point i am leaning more towards strategy I though not the best, but works for my current situation..
Summary of things i now know or been updated:- shares with very good DPS, FXD and best of all is this summary from chiaroscuro

2] Rental house bought on mortgage make NO financial sense

3] Rental houses bought fully built for cash make LITTLE financial sense

4] Rental houses self-built with mortgage make MORE financial sense

5] Rental houses self-built with own cash make A LOT of financial sense

My advice was based on the assumption that you were in a comfortable position to pay the balance of your monthly payment, but if you have doubts about over exposing yourself then don't go for the mortgage option, its better to be safe then sorry. I always plan for worst case scenario and if it doesn't look realistically manageable then let it go.

If you are not in a hurry than I would suggest buying a plot on the peripheries of Nairobi, look at the new bypasses and highway projects to guide you. As much as you'll have a dead investment in the short run, I forsee considerable appreciation and you can save up for the construction till you are ready to move back.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that when buying property especially on the lower sides, work out the cost per unit area...you might be paying more for a mombasa road apartment with lower finishes then one in lavington.

Yes I moved backed straight from university in 2000, and its worked out better than I ever imagined. This is the new land of opportunity in my opinion.

Newbie here. Long time reader. But this thread motivated me to register...

The sad thing about all of this is that you don't feel confident enough in Kenyan contractors that you do not feel you can build unless you are actually present in the country. If you think about it is a huge indictment of how lowly we hold our service providers... Maybe you should consider asking wazuans whether they know any good contractors...

The second thing, and I'm sorry if someone else has mentioned it and I missed it, would be if you are looking at rental income then a single unit from Suraya or whoever is obviously not your best bet. You really should be looking at a block of flats in a place like Baba Dogo would cost you 10m tops. A 4 floor block of flats with 6 units of one bedrooms per floor would get you around 200k per month. Management would cost you between 5% and 15%. Also you lesson the risk of 0 income that would come with a single unit when your tenant moves out.

It might take you a bit outside your comfort zone but you'd probably make a reasonable return.

I love this site by the way. It's just fantastic

@ young have no prior experience with dealing with tofinarom but i believe there was another thread about the same.shall look for it and post the link.

What's this crave about suraya? Some1 please make me understand. With 1.5 to 2.5m you can get a clean 50x100 or 40x80 plot. Use 3 to 4m to construct the first floor of 6 one bedroom rental houses. Rent them out for 5k to 7.5k a month. I am talking from experience.