What you need to know before buying a home

Superior Homes' Green Park Estate in Athi River

One piece of advice my mother gave me was to “always buy the most expensive house that you can afford”. Her reasoning? Inflation will always keep pushing your income up while home loan repayments are pegged to the original purchase amount.

Although the advice worked for my family, it did not seem to be a great idea back in 1987 when we moved from a small apartment to a large house that we could hardly afford to furnish or heat for almost two years in cold Scotland.