Point Properties Ltd

Secrets To Real Estate Investing

Real estate is investment sector that has continued to grow both locally and internationally. Locally, its contribution to the country’s GDP has continued to grow for the past two decades, from 10.5% in 2000 to 13.8% in 2016, as perKNBS. The sector has also continued to be shaped by various trends such as infrastructural development, improving client preferences and tastes, a growing population as well as an expanding middle class and the continued entrance of multinational firms who act either as clients or competitors, hence shaping the industry standards. As an investment asset class, real estate has toppled other investment asset classes in terms of returns and risk involved, and as a result, more individuals and institutional investors are shifting their focus on investments to real estate. This is attributable to factors such as: High returns, which as per our research, has averaged at 25.0% per annum over the last five years as compared to traditional investment assets such as stocks and bonds which have generated an average of 14.6% per annum over the same period. Real estate provides investors with investment platform for hedging funds against inflation. Secure tax incentives such as treatment of interest payment on mortgages as…

Five top tips for first-time homebuyers entering the market, it definitely pays to know what is coming. Being uncertain of your budget and not planning can lead to overspending and other major problems down the road. Be aware, be prepared, and keep reading to get ahead of the challenges you will face as a first-time homebuyer. Know thatbuyinga home can be a good investment,but can also be stressful, expensive, and confusing. Smart strategies like working with professional realtors and home inspectors, getting a mortgage pre-approval, and buying in an up-and-coming area can help you stretch every dollar. Here are five Top Tips for First-Time Homebuyers 1. Save, scrimp, and postpone purchases When I was a bank lender, I saw too many people screw up their mortgage pre-approvals with previous major purchases, car loans, and empty savings accounts. If you want to get a new home, you have to make sacrifices and trade-offs before you start house hunting. To begin, you can only make a home purchase if you have set aside money for a down payment. The more money you can put down, the smaller your bank loan will have to be. Typically, your down payment will be 20% of…

The Environment and Land Court has ruled that the National Lands Commission (NLC) does not have the authority to revoke title deeds, particularly on land that has never been public or government land. Judge Addraya Dena, sitting in Kwale, ruled that there is no provision allowing the commission to revoke titles even if it is proven that they were obtained illegally or irregularly. “The power to revoke title is vested in the Registrar and not the commission, which can only recommend,” said the judge who also stated that the commission has jurisdiction to review all land grants or dispositions, but only for public land or land that was previously public but was later converted to private land. The Judge did, however, observe that the provisions of Article 67 (2) of the Constitution supersede the provisions of Section 14 (4) of the NLC Act, which gives the commission the authority to make a determination after hearing land-related disputes. The article empowers the commission to conduct investigations into current or historical land injustices, either on its own initiative or in response to a complaint, and to recommend appropriate redress. Justice Dena issued the decision in a case in which six Kwale residents…

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) recently reviewed electricity tariffs, for the first time including a bulk tariff for a three-year period effective April 1, 2023. The tariff will allow big consumers to buy electricity in wholesale from Kenya Power at discounted price and resell it to end-users, including tenants at a profit. Here is how the deal to buy and sell power will work; What is the motivation behind the bulk power tariff? The tariff is meant to improve efficiency in power distribution and relieve the burden on Kenya Power in pursuing defaulters. Bulk power purchasers will pay Kenya Power upfront, meaning that the State electricity distributor will protect every shilling from power sold under this arrangement. The bulk power purchaser will be left with the task of following up on payments from the consumer. Which band of consumers are eligible for the bulk tariff? The tariff is applicable to big electricity consumers, mainly businesses such as shopping malls and owners of vast residential areas. Domestic consumers do not qualify. These are customers in the C12, C13, C14, C15, C16 and C17 consumption bands who use upwards of 15,000 kilowatts per hour a month. What will it take…

The NationalLandCommission (NLC) has ordered that all 999-year-oldlandleases to multinational tea companies in Kericho, Bomet and Nandi counties be converted to the constitutional requirement of 99 years. NLC announced the decision in a Gazette notice No. 4512 dated April 6. The decision has brought joy to members of the Talai clan and the Kipsigis community who have been fighting for years over historicallandinjustices. “The Commission orders that all 999-year-old leases should be converted to the constitutional requirement of 99 years,” read the gazette notice in part. The Commission gave the orders following an investigative hearing of historicallandinjustices complaints taken to NLC in 2017 by the county government of Kericho on behalf of the Talai clans and the Borowo and Kipsigis self-help groups versus the colonial government and the government of Kenya. The Commission recommended that a resurvey be done on thelandsbeing held by the tea estates in three counties to determine if there is any surpluslandor residue to be held in trust for the community by the county government for public purposes. It further added that the renewal of thelandleases be withheld until the county governments and the multinationals reach an agreement. “The Commission further recommends that the renewal of…

It was billed as a game-changing one-stop-shop, but two years since its launch, Ardhi Sasa is the bane of many stakeholders in the real estate sector. Lawyers, property financiers, property agents and surveyors estimate that transactions worth at least Sh100 billion are stalled at Ardhi House due to the inefficiency of the Ardhi Sasa system–an online national land information system– on delivering on the transaction processes and approvals required during conveyancing. Property players who represent buyers, sellers or those seeking equity release on their properties say over the last six months, thousands of their transactions have been pending at theArdhi Sasa system awaiting approvals with no given timeline. At the heart of the delay is the verification of surrendered original certifications based on physical files which have since been moved to Ruaraka for storage away from the Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi. Physical verification “The whole cadaster needed to have been digitised and automated before rolling out the Ardhi Sasa system. Why say a system is digitised and still usephysical files for verification? It is even more disturbing when the physical files to be used for verification are stored in the other part of town and not at the…

Suppose you decide to purchase real estate to rent it out and generate passive income, then you need proper guidance to make the most of your investment. If you do not have the time or capacity to manage your rental property yourself, then consider outsourcing this task to a property manager. In either case, you need to properly understand how property management works. What is Property Management? Property management describes the supervision of residential, industrial, and commercial properties, ranging from apartments to duplexes and shopping centers. The property manager, in this case, administers the property on behalf of its owner, serving to preserve their investment interests by protecting the property’s integrity and value. How Property Management works A property manager may be the owner, or an intermediary between the owner of the property, and tenants of the property. A professional property manager has an excellent idea of the real estate industry and is poised to handle everything involved in the rental market. They work in favor of your interests by managing tenants, budgets, maintenance, rents, and rental property records. They know the right approach to screen tenants, handle payments, terminate leases, and effect evictions. Briefly, they manage the property on…