NAKURU: A sharp increase in demand for housing has triggered a fierce competition for investors in Milimani West Estate in Nakuru Town. Situated between Nakuru Town and Menengai Crater, Milimani West has grown to be one of the town’s most sought-after residential neighbourhoods, hosting most of the high-class bungalows and maisonettes.
It is currently the fastest growing Nakuru suburb, giving stiff competition to the original Milimani, which is believed to be for the affluent.
The estate has transformed the face of Nakuru, with posh residential homes.
For the past few years, Milimani West has benefited from the rapid growth of Nakuru Town, with middle-class residents of Nakuru buying land and putting up their own houses in the area. According to Alex Kemboi, a resident of the estate, the area has attracted property investors and individual land buyers. In the 1990s, a plot was going for Sh60,000.
Mr Kemboi says that land prices in the area have since shot up tremendously, mainly because the estate is only a few kilometres from Nakuru Town.
CONFIDENCE
Kemboi says that due to good security in the area, the estate was not affected during the 2007-2008 post-election violence that rocked most estates in Nakuru. That boosted real estate investors’ confidence.
Another resident, James Njuguna, says that most people would not like to be associated with the area since it was close to the famous Gioto dumpsite and thus the area was left for grazing. “Initially, no one wanted to invest his or her money here because of the dumpsite, but when one person settled there, another one came and the rest is history,” he said
Today, new maisonettes, bungalows and apartments occupy much of what used to be grazing land.
With plans underway by the county government to relocate the dumpsite, the estate is expected to grow even bigger and will compete with Milimani and other estates like Kiamunyi and Naka, which have grown almost at the same rate.
Jane Cherono, who has witnessed the estate’s growth, says that availability of building materials like stones from nearby quarries and cheap skilled labour is also driving real estate growth in the area.
Nakuru and its environs have a fast growing real estate market.
