Land prices in Ruaka town race ahead of Runda, Karen

A building in Ruaka, Kiambu County. FILE PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NMG

Land prices in Ruaka have raced ahead of Nairobi’s high-end estates like Runda, Karen, and Kitisuru on the back of increased demand from property investors building apartments.

An acre of land in Ruaka, Kiambu, is about to breach the Sh100 million mark, underscoring the sharp growth of plot prices in towns around the capital.

HassConsult, which compiles quarterly property prices, says the average cost of an acre in Ruaka stood at Sh98.3 million in March, compared with Sh94.9 million in Kitisuru, Sh88.5 million in Runda, and Sh65.3 million in Karen.

Analysts said zoning laws that allow the construction of apartments in Ruaka have made the Nairobi satellite town a favourite for real estate investors compared to Runda and Kitisuru, which demand stand-alone homes sitting on preferably half-acre plots.

The growth in the cost of plots in the satellite towns has been faster than in the capital, a reminder of the days when the property craze saw coffee plantations in the Nairobi suburbs uprooted to pave the way for gated housing estates and shopping centres.

Ruaka’s closeness to the Two Rivers shopping mall has also boosted the value of land in the town that was previously under coffee plantations.

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