What to Check Before Buying an Apartment in Kenya

Before you start: ask the developer for the unit’s own title or lease number, not a share certificate. Everything else in this checklist depends on it.

What you are buying with an apartment in Kenya

The Sectional Properties Act 2020 replaced the old model, where apartment buyers held a long-term lease or a share in a management company, with an individual sectional title for each unit. A licensed surveyor prepares a sectional plan from the approved building plan, so the building has to exist first. Once the plan is registered, the registrar closes the original title and opens a separate title for every unit: a Certificate of Title if the land is freehold, a Certificate of Lease if it is leasehold. Existing charges and easements carry over.

The Act gave existing long-term-lease blocks two years from commencement (28 December 2022) to convert. Several sources report that many buildings were still unconverted years after that date, and enforcement appears to have picked up more recently. If someone quotes you a “final deadline”, treat it with caution. Check the building’s actual registration status directly.

Documents to verify before you commit

• A registered sectional plan. Approved or pending is not enough. Confirm it at the Lands Registry.
• The unit’s own Certificate of Title or Lease, confirmed by an official search on Ardhisasa or at the registry. A copy from the seller or developer proves nothing.
• The seller or developer as registered proprietor, with no undisclosed charges or caveats on the unit.
• An occupation or completion certificate from the county planning department. Without it, a unit legally can’t be occupied, rented, sold, mortgaged or insured, whatever the developer says.
• Approved architectural and structural plans, and NEMA environmental approval where the project is large enough to need it.

A share certificate in place of a unit title means the building hasn’t converted under the 2020 Act. Ask the developer why, and don’t accept “it’s coming soon” as an answer.

The owners’ corporation

The Act requires a Corporation of all unit owners to manage the common property. It has by-laws that govern service charges, and it can sue and be sued like a company. Before you buy, ask:

• Is the Corporation registered?
• Does the unit carry service-charge arrears? These can pass to you as the new owner.
• What is the sinking fund balance, and how is it funded?
• What do the current by-laws say?

Extra risks off-plan

Buying before the building exists adds three risks to the title questions above: the developer runs out of money before completion, a unit is sold to more than one buyer, and payments go straight to the developer with no escrow. Before you pay anything, check the developer’s registration and track record on past projects, insist on an escrow arrangement, and use your own advocate rather than one the developer recommends.

Costs to budget for

On top of the price you will pay stamp duty (4% urban or 2% rural, on the higher of the price and the government valuation, covered in our stamp duty guide), legal fees on the Advocates Remuneration Order scale plus VAT, valuation and registration fees, and usually a service-charge deposit at handover. Get the exact figures in writing before you commit.