Nakuru investors pick bedsitters to accommodate college students

A geothermal plant. Kenya hopes to reduce the cost of power by 40 per cent once the major geothermal projects deliver power to the national grid by 2018. FILE 

By VERAH OKEYO

Real estate investors in Nakuru are switching to studio apartments or bedsitters to meet the rising demand for housing linked to a high number of students in the town.

The single rooms that function as kitchen, living room and bedroom, with an adjoined toilet and bathroom are a favourite with college students and young people who have recently secured employment due the town’s exponential economic growth.

“A bedsitter costs Sh4,500 and a maximum of Sh6,500 in high end estates. This is every affordable for most people who have begun their independent life and have little property to fill up a family unit,” says Henry Mulwa, a real estate agent with Point A Commercial.

A well-finished one-bedroom house in modest neighbourhoods like Racecourse fetches a monthly rent of Sh7,000 while a two-bedroom house costs up to Sh13,000, prices that are unaffordable for many young people.

In privileged neighbourhoods such as Naka, Section 58 and Milimani, a one-bedroom house costs around Sh14,000 while a two-bedroom unit goes for Sh25,000.

“Most contractors had completely ignored this group of clientele, and they are the majority in the town”, he says. “People may want to compromise on space but not on their privacy. They don’t want to share bathrooms and toilets as before.”

Steve Mbugua, a private contractor in Nakuru, says anyone seeking to invest in the real estate industry would benefit a lot from constructing bedsitters.

“They are cheap to construct ad a small piece of land can accommodate so many,” Mr Mbugua says.

He explains that constructing a bedsitter, with a kitchenette and toilet, will cost around Sh350,000 while a one-bedroomed house with the same interior details would cost a minimum of Sh800,000.

He adds: “We can add sinks and cabinets in the kitchen but still the expenses in making bedsitters are way much cheaper.”