Olonyori Estate fights for own space

Olonyori Estate is hard to miss. Comprising 240 two-bedroom apartments, the estate is located off the busy Mombasa Road near the Mlolongo weighbridge and can be accessed through cabro-paved Beijing Road.

It is surrounded by other major housing developments, including Greatwall Apartments by Edermann Properties, also on Beijing Road. There are also newer ones like the Stima Village.

A secure gate opens to a beautiful scenery of well-manicured lawns, paved passages, street lights and well-organised building blocks numbered A-J.

Each block has 20 houses - four on each floor. The houses have strong wooden doors and open to a hallway that separates the sitting area, the kitchen and utility area and the bedrooms on the far end.

INSIDE

Greenish and cream tiles line up the floor across the whole house, which measures about 90 square metres. The kitchen has granite tops and well-polished wooden built-in cupboards. Another door joining the kitchen leads to the utility area.

Between the kitchen and the bedrooms, there is a bathroom that has an open cupboard for storage purposes.

The two bedrooms sit opposite each other and have floor-to-ceiling polished walk-in wardrobes. The master bedroom is ensuite and has a balcony. The other bedroom, though, is quite small and can only fit a double-decker bed.

The houses have large windows and open to a beautiful outside scenery and allow for aeration. But the entire house seems small, simple and devoid of spectacular features.

“Most buyers describe the space as functional - not too big nor too small,” says Leonard Onyancha of Pam Golding Properties, the selling agents. “Most of the buyers are aged between 30 and 40 years. These are people who are starting families and so space is not such a big issue for them.”

Parking space

Buyers are assured of one parking space per house. The rear end of the estate has been earmarked for a theme park as it faces Syokimau Dam. Currently, the estate is supplied with borehole water but there are plans to get water from the mains in Mavoko.

There is a back-up generator for the residents and the houses have wiring for internet connectivity and built-in ports for television connectivity.

According to Onyancha, the houses are going for Sh4.5 million for the second, third and fourth floors and Sh4.25 for the ground and top floors.

Blocks D and G are up for rental at a cost of Sh25,000 per month.

According to Pam Golding, the pricing has been influenced by other properties around the bubbly Syokimau area. The area has in the recent past experienced a lot of real estate developments as buyers move to Nairobi suburbs.

With other major developments like Greatwall Apartments also around, there has been competition to lure buyers.

As with most developments in Syokimau, accessibility is still a problem. Most roads are not tarmacked, with some having portholes and are impassable during the rainy seasons and dusty in the dry season.

Plans to tarmac the road leading to Olonyori were stopped as the movement of heavy trucks coming from quarries deep inside Syokimau was seen to be disastrous.

“We are following up with the county government to allow us to cut off one end of this road to stop those lorries and tarmac the way,” says Onyancha.