Swanky apartments dominate skyline in peri-urban zones

Ordinarily, buildings that rise beyond fifth floor, especially in peri-urban zones, are largely commercial structures that host businesses and offices.

Rarely would one find tall residential apartments in these areas, as such are deemed to be a preserve of the swankiest suburbs.

But investors in real estate are fast debunking this myth. Perhaps driven out of the swanky suburbs due to lack of land and high cost of available pieces, residential skyscrapers are coming up even in areas that were previously not preferred for such investments.

A case in point is Mountain View, a balmy suburb that is located near Kabete Police Station, along the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway, where a developer has put up five 11-floor residential block.

Their height easily ranks them as the second tallest residential facility in the outskirts of the city after the 88 Nairobi Condominium, a 44-floor residential skyscraper situated off Ngong Road in Upper Hill - one of the swankiest city suburbs.

The Sh5 billion, a residential monolith by Lordship Africa sits on a two-acre spread on Fourth Ngong Avenue, was unveiled in February this year, and would be arguably be the tallest residential apartment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Mountain View project, dubbed Waiyaki Ridge Gardens, and which is being constructed by Waiyaki Way Developers, a real estate company, straddles a 2.3 acre piece of land, and is perhaps the tallest residential apartment in an unfashionable city suburbs.

Mr Muigai Thumbi, the developer said Kenyans are fast embracing residential skyscrapers, making such development the next frontier in the real estate sector, considering that land in the cities and their outskirts is not just shrinking but the costs are becoming prohibitive.

The project which started in 2014, and which comprises of 226 two and three-bedroom, master-en-suite units that have superior finishing is currently on its sixth floor, and according to Mr Muigai, it’s expected to be complete by October next year.

POTENTIAL BUYERS

One of the blocks will have 80 units while the other four will have 40 each, whose sizes range from 89 and 109-square metres for two-bedroom units and 130 and 145-square metres for the three-bedroom unit presently selling at Sh13.5 million and Sh15.5 million respectively.

“Such projects require careful thoughts when designing and maximum caution when executing because as a developer, you have to ensure that it has been built to the required quality and standards. The foundation and the beams have to be strong since being an 11th floor structure, it definitely has to have stamina to accommodate the weight because any oversight can make the apartment a safety hazard,” said Mr Mungai, an experienced real estate investor.

The five blocks are each to be serviced by two high-speed elevators and have befitting stare cases. According to Mr Muigui, the design creates enough openings to ensure they have sufficient natural lighting, flow of air, while meeting the safety requirements.

“You cannot to be greedy such that you just fill an opening with units in order to make money like many developers do. The occupants of the five blocks will be more than 1, 000 people, require flow of air and green lighting which comes with sufficient openings,” he added.

To provide tenants with enough parking space, Mr Muigai said downward excavation has created space for two basement floors that will accommodate 500 cars, with each unit allocated two slots.

The plan, he said, has taken into consideration all the tenant needs and demands in a modern day real estate market, and maximized on the little space at their disposal to offer all these. This is what enables the developer to float the units at favourable costs and also ensure they make better returns.

“We no longer have space where we can put up bungalows and maisonettes even in the suburbs. However, we still have little space ranging from an acre to five acres which developers can utilize to offer quantity and quality products and affordable cost,” he said.

The concept, he said is driven by economies of scale which balances costs and savings and ensuring high standards are maintained.

With thousands of Kenyans desperate to own homes grappling with all sorts of encumbrances that make attainment of their dreams difficult, the developer has been forced to go an extra mile to assist his potential buyers access financing to enable them purchase the houses.

The developer has partnered with Kenya Commercial Bank and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) which are financing their potential clients up to 105 percent.

According to Mr Muigai, potential buyers only have to identify the units they prefer and, through the partnership with the banks, they get the loans with their units being the security.

This takes care of the headache for the potential home owners for whom mortgage to purchase such products has remained a mirage, mostly due to lack of collateral.