Real Estate
Mega projects propagating region’ s industrial property boom!
Despite the saturation, of high end commercial and residential properties in Nairobi, industrial related property has seen an upsurge in demand, attributed to mega infrastructural projects being undertaken by government.
By George Wainaina george. wainaina @ thinkbusiness. co. ke
According to the Africa Prime Industrial Report for 2017, Kenya is expected to become the logistics hub of the East African Region following the government’ s recent infrastructure initiatives.
The LAPSSET programme for instance, is East Africa’ s largest infrastructural project consisting of a 32-berth port in Lamu expected to be completed by 2020, interregional highways to connect Kenya,
South Sudan and Ethiopia, three international airports in Kenya and the expansion of smaller airports, and the Standard Gauge Railway from Mombasa to Nairobi, through Naivasha to Uganda and eventually to Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. The resulting transportation networks will be fuel for business in the region, leading to a demand in logistical facilities.
Currently, industrial property is clustered around Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. The report by JLL, explains that the earlier industrial node establishments began in Nairobi, along Mombasa road but shortage of development land along those nodes has forced seen developers shift their attention to other emerging nodes such as Ruiru, Syokimau, Athi River, Eastern Bypass / Embakasi, Thika Road and Kikuyu.
Further, the completion of the northern and Southern bypass has increased the appeal of these areas for industrial development with high uptake, where developers are able to fill spaces within a year of completion.
22 | THINK BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2017