Industry HIghlights – Week ending 10.05.2025
Real Estate Sector
Treasury projects housing levy flows to hit Sh95.84 billion
The National Treasury projects to collect Sh 95.84 billion from the housing development levy in the financial year starting July, signalling a boost to the government’s plan to put up 200,000 subsidised houses annually for middle- and lower-income households.
Source: Business Daily
Counties to develop smart cities in a proposed law
Counties may soon design and develop their smart cities to be overseen by a new authority should the Senate pass the Technopolis Bill, 2024.
Source: Business Daily
Home Afrika Posts Rare Sh133 Million Profit on Higher Turnover
Home Afrika, a real estate firm, has reported a net profit of Sh133.4 million for the year ending December 2024, marking its first profitable year since 2014. The return to profitability follows years of losses, including a Sh27.8 million net loss recorded in 2023.
Source: Business Daily
Juja, Kiserian, Ongata Rongai top growth in home sale prices
Juja, Kiserian, and Ongata Rongai recorded the highest increases in residential house sale prices among Nairobi’s satellite towns in Q1 2025, attributable to buyers shifting from more expensive city suburbs to affordable, well-serviced areas.
Source: Business Daily
Kenya’s luxury hospitality sector thriving despite challenges
Kenya’s luxury hospitality sector is experiencing notable growth, driven by a 35% increase in international visitors, a stable economy, and a rising middle class.
Source: The Star
President’s office gets Sh2.3bn for facelift
Kenyan taxpayers will pay billions of shillings for the upgrading and refurbishment of President William Ruto’s offices in the new budget, whose implementation begins on July 1, 2025.
Source: The Daily Nation
Home ownership: To pay mortgage or to buy your new house?
Every month, countless tenants rush to pay rent, driven less by comfort and more by fear. Fear of penalties, fear of eviction—yet rarely is there fear of what rent really means: money permanently gone. No equity. No investment. Just another receipt.
Source: Business Daily
Construction of Taita Taveta, a 3,000-acre green city in advanced stages
The development of the new Mwatate City Project on a 3,000-acre plot of land along the Voi-Mwatate road is scheduled to start this month.
Source: The Standard
Affordable homes project gets Sh 2.8bn for feasibility research studies in budget
The government plans to spend Sh 2.8 billion on research and feasibility studies towards the delivery of the affordable housing project in the next financial year.
Source: Business Daily
Statutory
New national law ends county rate rules, makes land in towns taxable.
The Kenyan government has enacted the National Rating Act of 2024, which ends existing individual county land and property rate laws. The new law requires counties to use a common national system for collecting land and property rates, making all residential and income-generating freehold, as well as all leasehold land, ratable properties.
Source: The Standard
Infrastructural development
Toll charges for the Nairobi-Mombasa expressway revealed.
Motorists using the proposed 440-kilometer Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway (Usahihi) would pay between Sh12 and Sh13 per kilometer, making it cheaper than the shorter toll road in the capital with an estimated Sh18 charge for a similar distance.
Source: Business Daily
Kenya-Uganda SGR line closer as Treasury allocates Sh16 billion
The Kenyan Treasury has proposed an allocation of Sh16.5 billion to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Naivasha to Kisumu and Malaba, marking a significant step towards a seamless rail link from the Mombasa port to the Kenya-Uganda border.
Source: Business Daily
Kenya to pay French firms Ksh 6 billion for botched road deal
Kenya is set to pay a consortium of French contractors Sh 6.2 billion for the termination of the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Toll Road, adding to the taxpayers’ burden of paying for cancelled projects
Source: Business Daily
Construction Sector
Clinker imports dip 93pc as construction sector growth slows
Kenya’s cement clinker imports experienced a drop in 2024, falling to 10.3 million tonnes from 148 million tonnes in 2023, amid a contraction in the construction sector.
Source: The Standard
Kenya attains key milestone in sustainable buildings.
Kenya has attained a milestone of one million square meters of green-certified floor space, offsetting 9,000 tonnes of carbon annually across the country.
Source: The Standard
Should Kenya adopt statutory adjudication for construction disputes?
As Kenya pursues ambitious infrastructure, we can’t afford to overlook how we handle disputes in the construction sector. Disagreements, especially around payments and cash flow, remain the most significant reasons why projects slow down or stall entirely.
Source: Business Daily
Government-built affordable houses halved to 1,655 last year
The number of residential housing units completed by the government dropped by half to 1,655 units in 2024, down from 3,357 units the previous year. Consequently, the value of these houses fell to Sh 4 billion from Sh 11 billion.
Source: Business Daily
Energy Sector
Kenya Power supports a special levy to run street lighting project
Kenya Power has expressed support for a proposed levy aimed at financing county street lighting projects to mitigate ongoing disputes with county governments over unpaid bills. The levy, known as the Street Lighting Infrastructure Support Levy (SLISL), could be introduced in cents to minimise its impact on electricity prices for consumers.
Source: Business Daily
Power deals freeze to be lifted by the end of June
Parliament is set to lift the freeze on new power purchase agreements (PPAs), allowing Kenya Power to negotiate fresh deals amid growing fears of power rationing.
Source: Business Daily
