Real Estate Industry in Kenya. 2019 summary and 2020 trend predictions.

Bank loans.

The year 2019 has seen the bank interest rate cap removed .

Currently, banks such as Barclays bank are on 12.75% with NCBA bank are on 13% interest rates for construction financing.

During the period of interest rate caps, banks shied away from lending to citizens, leading to a reduction in the number of construction projects financed around the country. With this new interest rate cap removed, 2020 will see an increased construction hence a good year fro those in the construction industry such as hardware shops, building contractors and real estate agencies.

Technology.

Use of specialized steel scaffolding as opposed to using timber poles and planks is on the increase with the ban on forest cutting by Government.

Prefabricated panel housing has been on the decline after a few Government agencies used cement board panels for construction and it was found to be generally more expensive than using the traditional stone. Stone is lower cost and more superior in quality than the cement board panels.

Worldwide, prefabricated panel housing is still much cheaper since most countries such as China produce the materials locally. Prefabricated housing becomes expensive in Kenya due to high import duty and higher labour cost associated since most local fundis do not have the know how to construct using this method.

3 d technology.

3 D printing of building materials for facades and decorations is now on the increase. Alot of Kenyan entrepreneurs have set up 3d cutting shops in the city to serve the citizenry.

This technology will continue to flourish throughout 2020 since its cost effective and gives out a much neater work which makes lots of value for the developers.

Worldwide, 3D printing of complete houses will be in high gear . Kenya will have to wait for a few years for the 3d printing machines for complete houses to be affordable and be shipped to our country.

Solar and Wind Energy.

Wind farms in Kenya, Ngong hills and Turkana areas are now operational and are feeding lots of power to the national grid.

Solar farms are also coming up and hopefully by 2020, it will be possible for individual solar farm owners on their building rooftops to sell off power into the KPLC National grid like it happens in Europe.

Construction costs.

Cost of cement and steel has stabilized for the last 5 years with no major increase. The recent phase out of twisted steel reinforcement bars and introduction of ribbed steel reinforcement bars has causes a slight increase in cost of steel.

Twisted steel

Ribbed steel

Architectural design.

The skyscape around the country is now being beautified by unique designs such as theis building coming up opposite KICC, between Police building and Deputy Presidents office along Harambee avenue.

CBK Pension building

The year 2020 will have such unique architecture funded locally as opposed to the current box-lie buildings that have come up along Ngong Road and Hurlingham funded from overseas/China where the uniqueness and architectural novelty has not been considered much.