Post first published in July 9, 2014
I normally charge for this information but today am going to let the cat out of the bag. I got a phone call from my childhood friend’s mom. She asked me, “my son, where are people buying land?” I gave her several options and while I talked, she told me, “ you need to come and talk to the church members about these options.” She went ahead to mention the church elders who are looking to invest and how they do not have someone to advise them. These are men, who when I was growing up, I knew that they knew “everything”.
I will do this in a series, mostly because I don’t know everything. Am also learning.
Ruaka is a fast growing town about 5km from the Village market and Runda off Limuru road. You can also approach it from Kikuyu town and Waiyaki way though Gitaru and Ndenderu.
There’s a new project coming up about 1km from Ruaka. It’s called the Two Rivers project. (http://www.tworivers.co.ke/ )This will be the biggest shopping mall in Subsaharan Africa save for South Africa, sitting on about 100 acres of land, yes, bigger than the Garden City Mall, off Thika road that sits on 36 acres of land. It is a project by Centum Investments Ltd (http://www.centum.co.ke/index.php/our-business/real-estate-infrastructure) The development of the mall is already underway.
This project will be complete in December 2016. In my conservative estimation, it will have capacity to employ about 5,000 people. Where will these people live? You guessed right, in Ruaka, Muchatha and Banana, all within a 3km radius.
The price of land in Ruaka is quite high with ¼ acre going for about 15M. When this project is complete and the “other Kenyans open their eyes” the land will be going for double this value. Muchatha and Banana is more affordable at about Kshs 10M for ¼ acre.
The price of a 2 bedroom master en suite apartment 2KM from the upcoming mall is Kshs 4.5M today. When the mall will be complete (December 2016), the price is likely to go to 6M or even 7M.
Maybe you are already thinking that since you are not from the Mt Kenya region, maybe this is not the opportunity for you. In my estimation, once these 5,000 people working in this mall join the Ruaka, Banana and Muchatha community together with their spouses, children and house helps, this will be one of the most metropolitan suburbs in Nairobi.
Valuer Kariùki, MRICS
Registered & Practicing Valuer
Chartered Valuation Surveyor.
