HOW TO EVADE HIGH LAND PRICE IN KENYA.
Kenya’s total land size is 582,650 sq km. This translates to 143,975,950.00 acres.
Of this land, 50% is agricultural i.e. can be farmed upon or used as pasture for grazing. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/kenya/arable-land-hectares-wb-data.html
Assuming that this 50% of agricultural land, 71,987,975.00 acres is owned by 20% of the population, mainly Government bodies and individuals, we remain with 35,993,987.50 Acres.
80% of Kenyan population shares the 35,993,987.50 acres. Out of this 35,993,987.50 acres, 50% of this will be roads due to subdivision process, unbuildable areas such as pits, quarries, dams and forests.
Land Shared equally to al Kenyans.
This leaves 7,198,797.50 acres to be shared by 40,000,000 Kenyans. The 7.1million acres shared by 40 million Kenyans bring us to 0.18 acres per person, approximately a 1/8th acre plot per person.
The population is growing at a rate of 2.4% per year.
This means that the plot sizes have to be lower than 1/8th acre to accommodate all.
Other options to increase livable space include
- Building several storeys higher to increase the livable area per person.
- Several families living together to increase the number of people within the 1/8th acre plot.
- Land reforms to provide mechanisms that allow Kenyans to live in the 50% of land in the arid and semi arid areas.
- Land reforms to increase the land available from the minority landlords and large government holdings who own the 80% of agricultural land.
We are currently in an election year. None of the possible presidential candidates have mentioned anything related to increase of available land through the above methods. This means that chances are high that things will remain as they are.
The availability of only a small section of land for sale to majority Kenyans has resulted in very high land prices.
Most of the land that could have been used for housing is held by Government and a few individuals.
Take Nairobi for example.
- KWS owns a large tract of land from Langata till Kitengela.
- Ministry of Forestry owns a large tract of land from Kibera till Kikuyu-Ngong forest.
- The Catholic Church owns most of the land in Karen.
- The city has occupied a huge chunk in the middle of Nairobi.
- Kenyatta University owns most of the land along Thika road.
- Coffee farms own a lot of land along Thika road.
- JKIA owns thousands of acres along Mombasa road.
- KARI owns a lot of acreage along Waiyaki way.
- Kenya Railways owns thousands of acres in the city and the suburbs.
- Many more individuals own huge chunks of fallow unused lands in Nairobi and its suburbs.
This leaves a small fraction to be cut into 1/8ths for the majority of the population to share.
This has resulted in very high land prices.
Since land is as essential as air in that we can’t live without it, www.a4architect.com has come up with a solution to this-Sectional Land Ownership.
How Sectional land ownership works.
- 2 or 3 people meet and identify a plot of land 1/8th acre anywhere within Kenya from here https://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/
2. www.a4architect.com comes up with a master plan architectural design that allows for 2 or 3 houses within the 1/8th in compliance with building regulations set out within the local authority bye laws.
3. The 2 or 3 people register a company with 2 or 3 shares which enables them to co-own the land and build their dream homes for living in or as rental and sale investment.
Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
+254721410684
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