Paying extra for titles  
Pushed to the wall, some property owners have embraced a suicidal method of dealing with deliberate delays at Lands Ministry offices across the country. They simply bribe! But what happens when similar tricks are employed in the private sector?

Apartment sharing concept takes root in urban centres     
The concept of house sharing is gaining currency in urban centres as young professionals make every effort to hinge against the prevailing hard economic times.The freshly painted black gate at Buru Buru’s Phase III Estate indicates that the house is indeed occupied. However, instead of the usual one nuclear family, the house is occupied by young single women, all in their 20s.

Mortgage rates still an issue to home owners
Even against sharp rise in mortgage lending, the edgy interest charges have remained a nightmare for the new homeowners. The mortgage financing has been the best option for many coastal region low and middle-income earners when buying a house. However, with now the surge in interest rates, this option is slowly losing ground.

Stakeholders to present pre-budget housing paper    
With only three months to the Budget Day, stakeholders in housing sector have drafted an industry paper, which they plan to present to the Finance minister Mr Amos Kimunya for consideration. Mr Erick Kuchio Makokha, the chief executive officer of Shelter Forum says the pre-budget paper seeks to realise the right to decent, affordable, secure and adequate housing for majority of the poor. This, he says, is the biggest challenge facing the Government.

Escape door from a troubled mortgage  
Advertisements for property sale by auction usually send shivers down the spine of the owner, especially where the auction is arising out of default in mortgage repayment. It is agonising to be in a situation where your valued home in which you have invested most of your earnings is suddenly under threat of the hammer. 

Using incentives to lure buyers
The first time Nairobi-based property agent Mr Marsden Ireri took clients to view upcoming houses in an upcoming estate along Mombasa Road, he knew a sale would take longer than normal because of the poor finishing of the kitchen floor. Ordinarily, it takes him three to six months to conclude a selling deal, but he says the poor finishing of the interiors of the apartments that were on sale that time made little impression on potential buyers, thus making it difficult to sell the houses.

New mortgage products to spur real estate growth    
Financing real estate development and acquisition has always been a major challenge to both developers and buyers. There have been limited products. This resulted to a limited pool of financial resources from which people could borrow either to develop or purchase property. Interest rates on mortgages have been beyond reach of most people.

Rent drives investors out of CBD
Are you thinking of acquiring a building within Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD)? If yes, you might want to reconsider because experts say high rents and lack of parking space is driving tenants out of the CBD, leaving entire floors unoccupied in some buildings.