Cytonn reveals best commercial property regions

A report released by Cytonn Investment has ranked Mombasa and Mt. Kenya as the best regions for retail real estate development because of high retail space demand. The report showed the two regions have high retail space demand of 0.3 million square feet in Mombasa and 0.2 million in Mt. Kenya, attractive yields at 8.3 % and 9.9% and occupancy rates at 96.3% and 84.5% respectively. Speaking on Monday during the release of the report, Cytonn Real Estate’s Research Analyst Juster Kendi said the sector remained cautiously positive and they expected to witness reduced development activity in Nairobi, with developers shifting to markets such as Mombasa and Mt. Kenya regions that have low retail space supply, attractive yields and high occupancy rates. “The report focused on the performance of the real estate retail sector in Kenya in 2018, based on rental yields, occupancy rates, demand and supply, which was compared to 2017’s performance to gauge the trends,” said Kendi. According to the report, there has been an increase in the supply of retail space, especially in Nairobi, where retail space supply increased by 4.8% from 6.2 million square feet in 2017 to 6.5 million square feet in 2018, based on malls in…