For years, affordable housing has dominated conversations in the Kenyan real estate market. We've seen increasing volumes of affordable units coming onto the market, and the government has fuelled this dominance through tax incentives, policy and law reviews, and public-private partnerships. The luxury market seemed to take a back seat for a while, especially as economies around the world struggled to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftershocks.
This year, the real estate industry is recovering after a low season in 2023, and luxury property is winning. According to the latest Housing Price Index by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), although affordable real estate is still dominating the market, activity in the affordable housing market declined significantly in the first quarter of the year, while activity in the high-income market segment shot up in the same period. “Other notable shifts included a decline in housing activity in the low-market segment to account for 41.
79 percent in the first quarter of 2024, down from 62.26 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, while activity in the mid-market segment saw a rise from accounting for 20.75 percent to 27.
61 percent in the quarter under review. The high-market segment registered a significant increase in activity from accounting for 17 percent of the fourth quarter of 2024 to 30.6 percent of all transactions in the first quarter of 2024,” reads part of the report.
There’s no doubt that luxury real estate o.