August 5, 2014

Summary

Kenya property price rises: the rich get richer, the poor poorer. With poverty still such a problem how can we pay so much for property?

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Kenya property price rises: the rich get richer, the poor poorer

Kenya property price rises: the rich get richer, the poor poorer

The property in Lower Kabete, sold for Sh765 million. PHOTO | KNIGHT FRANK

With each passing day, the gap between the rich and the poor in Kenya keeps getting wider and as captured in the lyrics of Matapeli, a song by one of Kenya’s best celebrated singers and philanthropist, Jaguar: maskini atazidi kuwa maskini naye tajiri atajirike zaidi/the poor keep getting poorer and the rich even more richer.

Picture this, in the same land where half of the population live below the poverty line (less than a dollar a day), a Kenyan property developer has bought the most expensive house in the country (Sh 765 million).

According to Knight Frank, a real estate agency who made the sale, there is a huge demand for high end properties in the market.

“Most of the buyers for such are actually Kenyan investors who purchase for re-development”, says Mr Ben Woodhams, Knight Frank’s MD for Kenya.

Well, going by the minimum wage for the average Kenyan (sh 13,674) it would take one 4,500 years to own this house, assuming that they save every coin.

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