Kisumu real estates industry striving.

If you drive by or rather take a walk on polyview estate as it is called nowadays, you will find it very hard to believe that a Kisumu county cemetery has been transformed to one of the sizzling Kisumu real estates with very high returns. The place which used to be a cemetery not so many years ago is now turning to be preferred place for most young people with money. These are young doctors, lawyers, and engineers etc who are either Kisumu real estates developers or tenants. This has led to construction of a good number of posh and luxurious buildings emerging rapidly in the region.

The appreciation goes to the rapid growing demand of properties in the region and therefore made the Kisumu municipality council to change the land use status to allow more of residential houses in the area. Majority of developer in Kisumu real estates industry are now yearning and scrambling for a piece of land in the former burial ground which used to be a cemetery in the late 1960’s. The council of Kisumu town lengthened it’s usage until mid 1990’s where it was afterwards relocated to the present cemetery in Mamboleo.

Initially, people from the nearby used to have this weird beliefs and superstitions of the dead buried in the area, for this reasons majority of people around use to think that this particular place was inhabitable. Just a decade ago, the land in the area almost cost nothing, but the high demand for land together with the persistent housing shortage, created room for more investors to venture into mainstreams of the former cemetery.

Bit by bit, the initial developers who got large pieces of land from the council of Kisumu subdivided the land and then sold it to third parties which eventually made prices to shoot very high, a quarter an acre went for 1 million shillings. A city planner in Kisumu says that polyview is among the fastest developing estates in Kisumu city with about six sites commencing construction every month and in excess of 50 requests for construction approvals every month.

This has attracted both high and middle income earners in Kisumu real estates, owning its closeness to the Kisumu CBD and accessibility, with also learning institutions pushing demands for hostel and hospitality facilities.

The current rates for a three bedroom rental house ranges between Kshs.20, 000-Kshs.30, 000 while for the same size of houses goes for around Kshs.5,000,000- Kshs.7,500,000 on sale.