Period: December 7 to 13, 2015

Aberdares Hills Golf Resort to become a PGA(Professional Golf Association) course

9/12/2015: Business Daily, page 8

• The Golf course is being built at Aberdares Hills is an 18 hole par 72 championship layout of just over 6400 metres and will be constructed to international and USGA championship specifications.
• The Golf course is being built at a cost of 2.5 Billion, while the entire resort is being built at 25 Billion.
• So far Ksh 2b has been spent on the resort infrastructure spanning 30km of internal roads, a complete boundary wall, three dams and four boreholes supplying more than 3,000,000 cubic metres of water and infrastructure for residential development.
• The project features 250 villas going for between 15million and 100 million , a five star hotel with 120 rooms, conference facilities, a ball room and spa – some of the key requirements for PGA license

More Kenyans Want to Rent instead of buying

10/12/2015: The Standard, Home & Away Magazine, page 2

• According to Lamudi Property ltd, high property prices are putting off potential buyers who are instead opting to rent.
• The company data shows that tenants are more likely to look for apartments, with 81% of inquiries being on apartments, while houses are more preferable as a purchase option, with 515 of buyers seeking stand-alone houses.

New Naivasha hotel adopts fractional ownership model

10/12/2015: Daily Nation, DN2 Magazine, page 44

• Safari lodge in Naivasha has started selling 30 two room units through fractional ownership, an arrangement that allows possession of a single asset by several investors who buy shares.
• Aberdare Spa and Safari lodge, a Ksh. 1.5 b Hotel coming up in Naivasha town, expects to open in the next 18 months. Fractional ownership is meant to make it easier for middle income buyers who want to invest in leisure properties.

Prices of prime residence prices maintain an uptrend

10/12/2015: Daily Nation, DN2 Magazine, page 45

• High end residential properties in Nairobi’s affluent neighborhoods grew at a faster rate in the 12 months to September 2015 pointing towards market resilience.
• According to the Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index, the third quarter results showed that prices for prime residences in Nairobi increased by 3.5% in last year.
• Price growth has for the first time outperformed the Index’s global average of 1.9 % over the same period. This is also higher than a comparable period in the year to September 2014, when a growth of 0.7% was recorded.

Garden City Mall Ksh 606 M row with contractor sucks in Equity

8/12/2015: Business Daily, page 7

• Equity bank has blamed its failure to pay the owners of Garden city Mall Ksh 606 Million performance bond on a court order obtained by contractor of the shopping complex, Sinohydro.
• The lender says Sinohydro obtained the court order barring it from disbursing the funds before queries that it had raised regarding the mall’s demand for the amount had been answered.
• Garden city has raised issue with changes in some materials that were to be used in the construction, and with the delayed completion of the mall.
• Equity bank holds that Garden City’s demand was sent through the letterhead of a Mauritian company called CIM Corporate Service and not that of Garden city Retail. CIM is one of Garden city Retail’s sister companies.
• Sinohydro has sued Garden city Retail and Equity Bank stopping them from cashing the performance bond until the dispute over delays in completion has been determined. By an arbitrator.
• Equity bank was duty bound to authenticate the demand and establish why the same came from a different company from Garden City Retail before paying out the sums.
• Equity bank promptly wrote back to Garden city Retail and as such cannot be blamed for not paying out the money immediately.
• Garden city has slapped the chinese contractor with a ksh 1,2 b counterclaim it says arose from clauses of the construction deal which provided for penalties in the event Sinohydro failed to complete the project in the agreed period one year.

Value of real estate developments approved by the Nairobi City Council

13/12/2015: Cytonn Weekly Report no.48

• According to Kenya Property Developers Association (KPCA), Q3’2015 report on Nairobi City Council Building Permit Approvals, 722 permits were granted during this period with the value of developments approved standing at Ksh 44.7bn up from Ksh 29.2 Mn as at Q1’2015.
• This is a 53.1% increase in the value of developments approved pointing at increased development activity in the real estate sector.
• The report further indicates Karen as the location with the highest number of building permit approvals given at 11.1% of the total building permits granted was for the Karen area. Industrial area was the second behind Karen with a 4.8% proportion of the total building permits.

Water Services Regulatory Board (WSRB) Introduces a Sewerage levy

13/12/2015: Cytonn Weekly Report no.48

• WSRB has introduced a sewerage network infrastructural development which has proven inadequate given the rising population densities in the urban and peri –urban areas.
• Over the past few years, there has been a population influx into satellite towns areas and development has increased to cater for this rising demand for housing. However infrastructural network including roads and sewer have not been developing at the same pace resulting into an overload of the existing infrastructure.
• The National Water Master Plan is targeting to have sewerage systems developed in 95 out of the 215 urban centres by 2030.The revenue generated from this levy will thus go a long way towards achieving this goal.