Scramble for a piece of Kisumu city creates new property firms

Kisumu Airport is being upgraded to international status.

Kisumu city in Kenya is experiencing a property boom that has seen land prices triple in value in some areas.

Investors in commercial and residential property have been trooping to the lakeside city in droves in a move that has seen an unprecedented rise in the value of land and housing units in and around the town.

Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the boom have been property agents and developers who have had to deal with rising numbers of clients looking for property to rent, buy, or develop.

Over the last three years, the number of registered property agents has risen from less than 10 to over 25.

Nickson Opande, MD of Opande Africa Investments, is a household name in Kisumu’s growing property business. The Business Daily met Mr Opande at his Kisumu town office where he shared his experiences of working in an increasingly competitive market.

“Kisumu is a growing market in terms of real estate and returns are very good,” he said. One can buy a plot today for Sh1 million and sell it after three months for Sh1.2 million or more, he added.

Mr Opande, who has been in the real estate business for 20 years, said he started off as a hawker before a friend introduced him to the real estate trade. “I started with rentals. I would walk around estates, door to door, and ask if there was a vacant house.

I then made a deal with the landlord to allow me find tenants for the house, at a small commission.” Mr Opande’s tenacity and reputation for honesty and hard work led to landlords seeking for his services. His main challenge was how to bring professionalism to the then informal practice.

“Then, I didn’t have an office. I used to meet clients at their premises or in restaurants,” he said.

“Many of my clients told me to open an office, but I thought it would mean a lot of expenses and limit my movements.” However, it soon became clear to Mr Opande that if he were to go professional, an office was mandatory.

He needed an office in order to make his practice more appealing to his growing list of clients who now included corporates.

“Since there are a lot of brokers coming up almost on a daily basis, investors are becoming more wary and want to ensure that they are not being duped,” he said. “The problem with working in this type of business is that there are a lot of crooks.

On several occasions I have had to terminate my agents’ contracts because they made deals using my company’s name then pocketed the entire commission.”

Ms Nishma Sedani, the proprietor of Lake Estate Agency Ltd, is one of the new kids on the block.

According to Ms Sedani, the Kisumu market has matured and buyers are now looking for modern houses.

“The recent interest in Kisumu’s property market can be attributed to the fact that many people now understand and accept the apartment concept. People know that they do not have to own a shamba in order to be home owners.