Nyamira Town sheds backward tag as real estate booms

A section of Nyamira Town. The trading centre is buzzing with life after the real estate boom. [File, Standard]

Dating back to the introduction of the Provincial Administration, Nyamira has been a town in name, with nothing much to show for the status.

The government offices have been the face of the town that once was called Kisii North.

But that is changing as investors move in to establish businesses and property developers are now scrambling for space.

Nyamira’s time to rise has come, all the signs are pointing to that.

Up to around 2017, the town was just another shopping centre long the Nyamira-Senta highway, with a single street stretching from Tente all the way to Nyabite.

Establishment of county headquarters in the town has now opened it up.

Apartment blocks are now being erected, with a few completed ones shaping the rural town’s skyline.

Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama has set the pace by constructing his home at Tente. Others from within and without have followed suit, and the demand for houses is high and some start getting booked before they are complete.

Kennedy Nyakioga is the chief engineer of one of the high-profile residential developments in the town.

He says they had to change the design and purpose of the building during construction due to demand for houses.

“We had reached the second floor of the building when we decided to change it. We realised that people were aggressively looking for houses to rent, and the flow of guests and visitors into the town was not constant,” Nyakioga told Home & Away.

“So we decided to change from building a guest house to rental apartments.”

Besides, a significant size of the market they had targeted with the guest house was taken away.

“Just near this building is the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s conference headquarters. We had planned to target those who visit the conference headquarters with our guesthouse but the local SDA church had a similar idea,” says Nyakioga.

“They built a guest house and completed it before us. We could not compete for the apparently few guests and therefore a change of plan was necessary.” 

The remodelled apartment block is almost complete and commands attention in the town.

“Already customers have started streaming in to book the houses. Since the county capital is here, there are many civil servants and managers who want to stay in good houses. That is exactly what we sought to provide,” Nyakioga says.

The houses are bedsitters, one-bedroom and two-bedroom with rent ranging from Sh10, 000 to Sh20,000 per month.

“Nyamira is growing fast and with time we will adjust the prices. Again, in future, we might even change this building to be a guest house because, with the town’s growth, the number of visitors will increase,” he adds.

However, the civil engineer says that due to the high demand, some people are constructing sub-standard houses and the National Construction Authority needs to step in to stop the trend.

For David Onsate, a local radio journalist, Nyamira’s change is a pleasant surprise.

“People never regarded Nyamira as a town, they would move to Kisii town because it was more developed,” he says.

But now even land prices have increased shot up. For instance, a 50 by 100 feet parcel of land was going for about Sh300,000 but is around Sh1.5 million now, and rising.

“In addition, we didn’t have these huge buildings. In fact, rental houses are in demand that I have decided to build some myself,” Onsate says.

He has four one-bedroom houses under construction and plans to build at least 20.

“I am certain they will all be occupied in a short time because even the four that are under construction have been booked,” he says.

He adds that it is difficult to get land because the locals do not have enough for themselves, while the town is expanding.

For Polycarp Nyakundi, a real estate entrepreneur, the county government should move at the same pace with the needs of the people.

“We are putting up houses for the county workers yet the government seems to be a setback,” he told Home & Away.

“For example, the council’s water supply is unreliable. We can have water once a week. We are now forced to sink boreholes for our housing units.

“In addition, the county government seems to neglect the garbage heaps on the streets. They only collect garbage along the highways and leave us to sort ourselves back here. That makes our houses inhabitable.”

However, the Nyamira County Government seems to be reading the signs well. It has now upgraded roads in the town.

The county has also installed street lights.