A bank loan for an entry level TSC employee can easily reach KES 1,800,000 repayable over 72 months..

Building a house is a journey, not an event. The trick is to start even if you have 1m. See where the 1 m gets you, then you can progress pole pole as funds become available. Otherwise you will never build a house if you wait to accumulate 10m in the bank so that you can start.

Amusing real estate conmanship habits in Kenya that I can never understand.

1. Bait and switch scam: An agent advertises in bold letters that he has a prime plot in "Kitengela" at a very appealing price per acre compared to prices in the area. You click the add with enthusiasm or call him urgently trying to get a site visit and he tells you it is in Isinya, Kajiado or Ilbissil and 5km from tarmac at that! Since when did those areas become "Kitengela." Sometimes you feel you want to throw such people into Lake Amboseli for wasting your time.

2. Runda -"View" scam: This one you already know of. Muchatha becomes "Runda View." Gachie becomes "Rosslyn View" and Maroroi/Kimuka becomes "Ngong view." Bure kabisa!

3. Terrible photo scam: Very prime area advertised for sale but with a terrible photo perhaps of the ground. You call the agent to find out where the place is and it quickly becomes numer 1 or number 2 above. Run like the wind whenever the agent puts a terrible photo in any advert anywhere.

4. Elusive title scam: This one usually applies to so called "40x80" or basically anything less than an 1/8th of an acre plotis. The area may be prime but please run away from these guys as fast as you can as there is no title for the plotis. If there is, those titles are 100% bandia. Run also when you start getting "stories" about title e.g. I have not subdivided yet, but as soon as you pay deposit I will subdivide. Danganya mwingine boss!

5. Black Cotton Soil scam: Be very very careful when buying plots on very sticky black cotton soil. They are usually found at the bottom of swampy areas or river valley beds. Ask the seller if you can bring your KYM guy to come and chimba a test hole to see how deep the murram or bedrock is. If he gives you stories trying to stop you from doing it, run. If he agrees and your KYM guy is still digging past 3 metres with no murram or bedrock in sight, run even faster!

Zingine?

What about Expected Developments Scam? There's an airport, a university coming up. Or even SGR passing nearby

River beds n swampy areas.
Agents selling plots near a river bed and swampy areas during prolonged dry season.
Then when heavy rains comes, you realize you are in the middle of a swamp or your property is swept away by flood waters.
I know of a really beautifully finished property that was abandoned in Rongai when rain season came and floods were raging.

Advice:Look for a local elderly person near the area, buy him a choma while you inquire on the history of the property, especial during heavy rains before you commit.

Hehe. Malindi is vast. Plus that could definitely not be beachfront

Excellent advice

What about scams by fundis?(I call them vultures) They are too many to count and I am always learning new ones. Juzi I learned of a very creative one: Negotiated a fixed construction fee to build a certain small structure on my plot. Fundi gives list of materials and labour at a very reasonable price. I buy materials by myself, transport to site and fundi dons his overalls and starts work furiously saying it will be over by sundown.

So after hanging around bored past noontime and seeing the work progressing well, I decide this guy and his KYM crew are trustworthy so let me leave them to finish while I go inspect a different site. Wapi? By 6pm the fundi calls and says the work is "almost done" but they will need to come the next day "kumalizia." The next day very early in the morning he calls with a shocking new list of things that need to be done for the structure to be complete.

Mara waterproofing, mara more mchanga, mara one more pack of simiti. Of course I say a big strong no. I then go on ground thinking since the job is almost complete will just get another fundi to finish at a small price. I almost collapse when I find the progress on the structure is hapo hapo where I left it. Apparently they had disappeared like the wind as soon as I left the previous day. Next time I will not make the mistake of leaving site until everything is done, even if it means bring a mattress and a good book plus snacks to spend the whole day there.

I am curious what is this being built in a day requiring all these materials?

Sad but true and I had already anticipated this, that is why I gave them what I thought was iron clad conditions; tell me exactly how much materials are needed and exactly how much the labour will cost and if you exceed it, shauri yenu. They agreed to these terms, but of course when they saw they were losing money they pulled the plug on the project. The other mistake I made was to pay them the remaining 50% balance before I left!