If you want to build a house, you have to deal with the house construction costs in detail. Not only because you could otherwise lose track of the construction costs, but also because you can save a bit on the overall costs. Below you will find a list of all the house building costs.
Whether you want to know the cost of construction in Kenyan urban areas or in rural Kenya, this guide will give you a clear picture of what you should expect to part with. Town and rural construction costs will not be the same if everything else is the same. For instance, construction materials tend to be cheaper in the city than in the rural areas but the total cost of construction in Kenya favors those in the rural areas than those building in cities. Why? In rural Kenya, labour is cheap and people tend to use some locally available resources, eliminating some of the costs.
In the year 2022, the construction costs in Kenya average from Ksh34,650 per square metre to Ksh77,500 per square metre. You should also note that a simple mabati house structure will cost you around Ksh 350,000.
Costs for a new building in Kenya: overview and comparison
Anyone dreaming of owning their own property inevitably asks themselves: How much house can I afford? Because the cost of building a house can quickly shatter the dream. The answer to that depends on many factors. One of the most important is and will always be the type of house you want to build. And it’s not just about the question of whether you want a modern or a classic house – it’s more important to look at the shell and the construction. Also because certain types of house can only be built on certain plots of land, possibly only with a basement, at least a partial basement, and therefore cost more than others that stand on a floor slab. The home classics are still solid houses, architect houses or developer houses. Container houses are still the exception – and they in particular create a more cost-effective alternative to conventional living situations. Also because they can be built on small plots of land, for example in vacant lots. Since both wood and sand, insulating materials, mineral oil products and reinforcing steel have risen sharply in price in the recent past, information on house construction costs can only be snapshots at the moment. Prices are likely to rise even faster in the coming months, making it more and more expensive to build a house . Or do you want to build an apartment building?
If you are planning and building a prefab house, you will quickly notice that the house construction costs for a prefab house are not much lower than for a stone house, because both in terms of quality and the degree of possible individualization, the prefab house manufacturers have in the past ten years caught up.
Cost of a tiny house in Kenya
Overall, a tiny house is cheaper than a regular house – but the construction costs per square meter are comparatively high. The main reason for this is that a tiny house has significantly less square meters than an average single-family house: namely only between 17 and 50 square meters. In this case, you also need a smaller plot of land or, if you want a mobile home and don’t want to bother with the building permit for tiny houses, you don’t need your own plot of land at all. But the total cost of building a house is divided by fewer square meters for a tiny house. And when it comes to interior design, a tiny house can of course also become a stylish space miracle by installing high-quality equipment or space-saving custom-made products. For around 1,000,000 euros you get a tiny house kit that you can assemble and set up yourself. Ready to move in cheap tiny houses are usually between Ksh3,500,000 and Ksh8,000,000 with an average of 28 square meters – i.e. between 125,000 and 200,000 Kenyan shillings per square meter.
What do house building costs in Kenya depend on?
The cost of building a house in Kenya depends on many factors and no two houses are the same. Therefore, it is always very difficult to give precise information about house construction costs. Some of the cost items are obvious, such as the property, the type of home, the roof, the basement, the size and amenities of your dream home, and the quality of the materials used. Others are less obvious and builders tend to forget them. We therefore recommend that you roughly calculate the costs of building a house well in advance: the house building costs also include the excavation work , the outdoor facilities and the ancillary construction costs. The costs also vary depending on the number of windows and doors, the heating.
When building a house in Kenya, costs also depend very much on the region in which you want to build. Starting with property prices and the associated follow-up prices for the property through to wages of the craftsmen you employ on your construction site. If you are flexible in terms of work, you can save tens of thousands of shillings in house construction costs with the location alone. Builders can also save some costs by doing their own work when building a house. The less you can do yourself, the more expensive your house will be.
Ancillary construction costs in Kenya are not insignificant
Calculating ancillary construction costs correctly is not an easy task, also because you have to keep an overview of all expenses – after all, around 22 percent of the house construction costs flow into the ancillary construction costs. They include the costs for the notary, possibly a broker’s commission, the land transfer tax, the measurement of the property, any tree felling work, the building surveyor, the building permit, the development costs, the construction site equipment, various insurances for builders, the layout of the garden, the garden paths as well as the construction of the terrace , the carport or the garage and the paving of the driveway. Not to forget the costs to move to the new home and housewarming party.
financing costs
For most homeowners, owning a house is the most expensive purchase of their life. But you can also save a few euros when it comes to construction financing . If you carefully plan your own contributions, you can include a so-called muscle mortgage in the loan negotiations. Low interest rates on loans and high repayment flexibility are two other ways to save on building construction costs. One thing is clear: the more equity you have, the less money you have to borrow and the cheaper it is to build a house. But even those who want to take out a higher loan can save interest by carefully comparing. The LBS mortgage lending calculator provides you with further information .
Brokerage fees are tax -deductible as income-related expenses if you bought your building plot through a brokerage agency. The purchase of the property and the construction of the house should be split into two contracts – because this way real estate transfer tax can be saved . If you have already officially moved into the house and then have work done by craftsmen, you can deduct the wage portion of the bills for tax purposes and get back up to 120,000 shillings a year.
Personal contribution as a savings option
Skilled craftsmen, together with their family and friends who help with the construction, can reduce the costs of building a house by doing their own work and thus build a little more cheaply. But be careful: You should only do this after consulting the professionals and only for things that you really trust yourself and your helpers to do. Shoddy construction will later cost you dearly as the builder and you will live in a nightmare house instead of your dream house. In principle, you should choose simple activities and think carefully about how much time you have to work on the construction site. Insulating heating pipes, painting, wallpapering, laying tiles, laying laminate, plastering – these are the classic jobs that builders use to reduce house building costs through their own work. The attic conversion, especially if you do not need the room immediately, and the garden can be done as a personal contribution to reduce the costs of building the house in Kenya.