This archive report was first published on 10 January 2020.
Residents Flee Nairobi's Upmarket Areas in Search of Privacy ¶
January 10, 2020
Residents of Nairobi's Kileleshwa and Lavington areas are moving out in search of privacy due to the increasing construction of high-rise apartments.
Florah Soila, a business relations officer at Silverstone Properties, first moved to Kileleshwa seven years ago, seeking a conducive home and serene environment. However, the area has since become congested and lost its charm, with new high-rise apartments breaching the privacy of low-rise home dwellers.
"It served those purposes; it was as private as I desired, close to my place of work and my child's school and the place felt secure enough," Soila said. However, she now considers moving to a more private and less congested area.
According to Teresa Marinda, the agency and marketing manager at Crystal Valuers, the leafy suburbs are fast changing. Areas that were once considered exclusive are now densely populated, with those who can afford it buying tiny pieces of land and setting up tall residential apartments.
"With time, a bungalow or maisonette occupying a huge piece of land is likely to be demolished and replaced with tall buildings to accommodate more people. The result is numerous high-rise buildings and congestion within that area and hence diminished exclusivity," Marinda said.
Simon Ng'ang'a, managing director of Symonns Realty, has a different view. He says that what has changed in these upmarket areas is usage, with the upper middle-class now occupying the apartments.
"If you look at the people that live in these apartments, you'll notice that they are mostly the upper middle-class. These areas might have lost their shine as exclusive half-acre neighbourhoods but they now accommodate more rich cosmopolitan Kenyans," Ng'ang'a said.
