Infrastructure upgrade gives Kisumu’s real estate an edge

Kisumu’s real estate is riding on the wave of recent infrastructure developments, with home and land prices rising rapidly.

The rehabilitation of the port of Kisumu and the routing of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to the city are expected to aid growth and increase business activities, with both local and foreign investors trooping to the city to buy parcels of land, houses and build homes.

The port will provide a quick sea route to other East African countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. Kisumu was affected by looting and destruction of property during the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

Today, the city is enjoying relatively good security and development spearheaded by both the county and national governments.

“Apart from rapid growth of commercial buildings around the town and its environs, Kisumu has lately experienced unprecedented sprouting of housing estates owned by investors from locality and outsiders,” says Steve Omondi Onyango, the director of Perspecs Construction Limited.

The town’s Kibos, Riat, Nyamasaria, Otonglo, Kisian, Dunga and Milimani areas have now become a major attraction to the business class, senior civil servants and CEOs of both private firms and state corporations, says Onyango.

He says that with Kisumu’s population standing at about two million, land and house prices have risen rapidly. An acre of a prime land in Kisumu, which was costing Sh5 million four years ago, now goes for Sh10 million.

Most of prime parcels of land in Kisumu are now owned by rich businessmen and senior civil servants who own maisonettes and gated homes.