Masokani, an emerging settlement on Kangundo Road, is shaping up as the next property frontier in Nairobi’s satellite town.
When the BDLife recently visited, the transition was hard to miss. Fenced plots stretched across the dry landscape along the Koma-Kenol/Nairobi-Kangundo Road corridor, while scattered posh maisonettes and commercial properties were under construction.
Yet many plots remain empty, their owners seemingly content to wait for the area to develop.
For Robert Kamau, who has lived in Masokani since the 1990s, the transformation has been considerable.
‘When I bought here in the 1990s, there was no development whatsoever. Even this road is just a recent infrastructure improvement,’ he says of a the main tarmac road.
Mr Kamau bought two acres at Sh40,000 an acre. Today, he estimates that a 50-by-100-foot plot near the road costs at least Sh1.5 million.
Masokani prices sit within a wider market of settlements along Kangundo Road, where cost depends on location, access and level of development.
Some 50-by-100-foot plots in Malaa and Kantafu cost about Sh999,000. In Joska, same size plots go for Sh1.1 million to Sh1.7 million, and commercial plots are listed at about Sh2.2 million.
The settlement, near the boundary of Kathiani and Matungulu constituencies, is attracting buyers seeking homes away from crowded urban centres.
Property developers are keen to tap on this demand, buying huge tracts of land, subdividing, titling and setting up utilities such as water and electricity to woo buyers. After the value add, the developers demand at least Sh2.1 million for the 50-by-100-foot commercial plots.
According to Mr Kamau, the delopers are also pricing houses attractively with a three-bedroom house priced at about Sh5.2 million, while a four-bedroom townhouse measuring 152 square metres costs approximately Sh9.5 million.
However, not every buyer is staying.
Mary Ndanu is among those reassessing their investment in Masokani. She bought a 50-by-100-foot plot five years ago, during the Covid-19 period, for Sh520,000. She now hopes to sell it for about Sh850,000 and redirect the proceeds to an investment she believes will generate better returns.
‘I’ll probably do rental houses or invest in another property that has better returns,’ she says.
Ms Ndanu still sees potential in the Masokani. She points to the prospect of a petrol station, possibly accompanied by a mini supermarket, and believes better roads could encourage businesses and residential developers to move in.
‘Once the roads improve, more people will be able to access the area, and that could attract more development,’ she says.
‘The area is becoming cosmopolitan because people from different places are coming to settle here. With more people coming in, there is potential for the area to grow further.’
For now, she says how fast Masokani grows will depend on whether those projects materialise and the roads and other infrastructure improve quickly to catch up with the ever increasing land prices being quoted.
Such expectations underpin much of the appeal of emerging property markets. Buyers may be willing to hold land for years if they believe population growth, infrastructure and commercial activity will eventually lift its value. But those gains are not automatic, and the timing remains uncertain.
For Masokani, improved road access and the spread of housing provide visible signs of change. Whether the settlement can attract enough residents, businesses and services to sustain further growth remains an open question.
For now, investors must weigh the potential for appreciation against the cost of holding undeveloped land, the availability of essential services and the returns they could earn elsewhere. In a market where much of the promise lies in what is yet to come, patience may be valuable – but so is the ability to distinguish between an emerging opportunity and an expensive wait.