A novel way of selling and leasing houses

An artistic impression of Trident apartments in Riverside, Nairobi. COURTESY PHOTO 

By Lynet Igadwah, ligadwah@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• The company is targeting the burgeoning middle-class in Kenya who can afford to buy houses.

Palm Golding Properties specialises in real estate services in the residential fields, covering sales and letting as well as property management.

 

One outstanding feature about the company on how it does its advertising and marketing is putting faces of its sales agents on billboards.

Each sales agent has a physical location where they are assigned to operate and handle real estate transactions from.

Since the company whose headquarters are in South Africa opened its Kenyan franchise in January 2012 it has employed a total of 14 agents.

According to Faraaz Charania, the Marketing and Communication Officer at PGP, each agent is assigned a particular area in Nairobi in order to offer clients personalised service.

“Selling a house is a task that requires client trust and agent credibility so this is what PGP hopes to achieve by unveiling its agents publicly,” he says adding that it is a marketing strategy that placed them way ahead of their competitors.

Never before have we had real estate companies putting up billboards with their agents’ faces on them. Somehow, when you can see who you will be dealing with even before you enter the buildings of the company, you get a sense of familiarity which puts you, the potential buyer or renter at ease.

Though the company has international acclamation for serving high-end house buyers, it chose to be flexible when it entered the Kenyan market.

“We realised that there is a burgeoning middle-class in Kenya who can afford to buy houses and are being left out by well-established realtors who are only looking at the top tier of the society. So PGP made it a responsibility to bridge this gap,” says Charania.

Awards

Some of the affordable housing projects include the Olonyori Development in the Syokimau area of Nairobi just after the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as one heads out to Mlolongo and Athi River and other upcoming ones in Langata.

They also sell land in areas like Karen and Runda which range in price from around Sh19 million to Sh35 million and beyond.

For the very high-end clients, PGP does niche marketing that are affordable but are keen on offering the best property the market has to offer.

“While negotiating on pricing, we do not compromise on quality because a house is more than a building. It is a home where owners will live for a considerable part of their life,” he says.

Outstanding performance by staff within the Pam Golding Group is acknowledged at the Gold Club Awards held annually in the locations where they have offices.