Eldoret land prices soar 900 per cent amid tight supply

Influx of wealthy investors seeking to put up commercial buildings in Eldoret has sent land prices in the town to stratospheric heights, in a move that threatens to slow down the region’s real estate sector.

The price of a quarter acre plot within Eldoret town centre, which was selling for Sh10 million five years ago is now being sold for a whopping Sh100 million – locking out many potential developers.

“Land prices in Eldoret are beyond the reach of most individuals driven by its strategic location in the North Rift region and links to the Great Lakes region,” Hancox Tum of Loy, a property dealer, says an annual survey on the prices of land in the town.

The soaring values have lured owners of old buildings to sell them to wealthy buyers at exorbitant amounts, thereby escalating an already overheating property market.

Prime agricultural land in the suburbs of Eldoret is being upgraded to commercial and residential use as farmers chase the high returns compared to those of dairy farming or crop production.

According to Moira Chepkok, a leading property dealer in Eldoret, the arrival of investors from outside Uasin Gishu coupled with the increase in the number of coldblooded brokers operating in the town is largely to blame for the land price inflation.

“Brokers are reaping big profits by selling land to investors from outside the county at exorbitant prices,” Ms Chepkok said in an interview.

She noted that, costs aside, the greatest challenge facing property investors is the rising cases of fraudulent land transactions, with some brokers colluding with unscrupulous officials to issue unsuspecting buyers with forged land title deeds.

“There is no due diligence being undertaken by some officials in the Lands ministry at the county level in issuance of title deeds. This has led to numerous cases relating to fraudulent acquisition of land in Eldoret,” she said.

Land prices inflation is not uncommon in Kenya. Nothing best illustrates this than Nakuru town where the price of an acre of land rose 9,900 per cent between 2011 and 2015 on rampant speculation.

The average price per acre rose from Sh1.2 million to Sh120 million.

Marsabit town in northern Kenya has also experienced a similar scenario, with the price of a 100 feet by 50 feet plot rising from Sh4 million in 2015 to Sh10 million last year – which translates to about Sh80 million per acre.

The completion of the Isiolo-Moyale highway has played a key role in opening up the previously quiet town to investors, thereby fuelling the escalation of land prices in the town.

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