Money Markets
Set on a 10-acre estate, the Hogmead residence has now become one of the
priciest units in the residential property market. COURTESY
PHOTO/KNIGHT FRANK
By GEORGE NGIGI, gngigi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- The Hogmead residence in Karen has six large ensuite bedrooms, six ensuite garden rooms, 12 staff rooms, a standby generator and a water treatment plant.
- Real estate market followers say the house, if sold, will reaffirm city’s position as a prime real estate destination in East Africa.
A country house valued at $6.5 million (about Sh565 million) has been put up for sale in Nairobi’s Karen neighbourhood.
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Set on a ten-acre estate, the Hogmead
residence is now one of the priciest commodities in Kenya’s residential
property market, confirming the growing status of Kenya as a prime real
estate location in eastern Africa.
Its owners — Fuzz and Bimbi Dyer,
and Andy and Caragh Roberts — had turned Hogmead into a 12-room
boutique hotel whose main room cost Sh42,000 a night. The hotel, run by
The Safari Company, was indefinitely closed in October 2013 and listed
with Knight Frank around the same time. The Dyers and Roberts also own
and run the luxury Manda Bay resort hit by cancellations after the
kidnapping of an elderly French woman in 2011.
Immediately after that incident, Mr Dyer was quoted telling the Financial Times “My business is over, completely.”
A spate of attacks by Al-Shabaab militants and
travel warnings by several Western nations has buffeted the tourism
industry in recent years, with reports of coastal tourism numbers down
by as much as 50 per cent.
The country house on sale has six large ensuite
bedrooms, six ensuite garden rooms, 12 staff rooms, a standby generator
and a water treatment plant.
“It is a big property, the quality is very high-end
and it overlooks the Giraffe Sanctuary,” said Ben Woodhams, managing
director of Knight Frank, which is handling the listing.
The only other properties the
firm has listed in or above Hogmead’s price range are two beachfront
properties in Kilifi and Watamu, and a boutique hotel on Diani beach. A
residential listing in Nairobi’s Loresho Ridge in the same price range
is now indicated as “under offer”.
According to Knight Frank’s report on unique sales
in Africa, other luxury houses up for sale in Kenya include Amina Ocean
Villa in Watamu, valued at Sh304 million, and the Casa Toni in Shanzu,
priced at Sh200 million. The firm has also listed some hotels among
properties available for between $2 million and $5 million (Sh175
million to 438 million): They include Malindi’s Driftwood beach club and
Scorpio villas.
Mr Woodhams said that the developer of Amina, the
main villa under Medina Palms, had received an offer which he was
considering. Coastal beaches remain a major attraction despite
insecurity concerns in the area, he said.
“The prices are still high,” he said. “They were
expected to soften with the insecurity issue, but they are yet to go
down.” The uptake of luxurious homes indicates the growing class of the
super-rich in the country who are willing to spend locally unlike in the
past where they preferred stashing their money in foreign bank
accounts.
The priciest property sold by Knight Frank last
year fetched Sh1.6 billion. It was set on a five-acre piece of land in
Kileleshwa, Nairobi. The company sold another for Sh765 million in Lower
Kabete.
Mr Woodhams said that some of the buyers were
looking to subdivide the land on which the property was set for
commercial development.
Developers are targeting the upper end of the market, who know what they want and are quick to close transactions.
“Demand for housing is strongest at the lowest end
of the market, but the financing options are almost non-existent,” Hass
Consult head of marketing Sakina Hassanali said in a recent investor
briefing on Kenya’s property market.
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