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By Correspondent
21st February 2010
An apartment
From Mlimani City village to Mbezi Beach Suburb, Mikocheni to Masaki, the emerging construction of furnished apartments is driving the posh hotels crazy as customers chose to stay in apartmentswhere they consider reasonable in terms of price, security and privacy.
And so does Nairobi where fancy hotels are feeling the pinch of the growing furnished apartment business buoyed mainly by the growing middle and first class executives as well as business executives.
In Nairobi, modern furnished apartments are the in thing in the multi-billion residential real estate sub-sector. Private developers are fast embracing the constructions, which earn them more monthly returns compared to rental units.
The modern apartments do not only target upmarket areas like Westlands, Riverside Drive, Kileleshwa but a number of them are coming up in middle income areas too, such as along Mombasa Road.
However according to property markets experts, in comparison, Dar es Salaam apartments are still more expensive than in Nairobi where rents are reasonable.
Experts in real estate say the furnished apartments, though expensive at the beginning, are more profitable in the long run.
In Nairobi, a home in an upmarket neighbourhood that would ordinarily rent at $769 per month, for example, fetches $1,500 over the same period, if furnished.
But in Dar es Salaam, the same home would cost $1,200 per month, while if fully furnished it costs about $2,500 for the same period.
The concept of furnished apartments is not only catching on in the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam cities in East Africa but other major towns including Mombasa, Kisumu, Arusha and Mwanza are also setting up low cost furnishing.
The new developments are set to create a showdown in the hospitality industry, as they compete with hotels over clients.
While it costs between $100 and $400 per day to stay in hotels in Dar es Salaam or Nairobi depending on the status of the hotelan amount that translate into about $700 or $2800 per week.
This amount is what most furnished apartments are charging per month, a situation that create stiff competition to the well established hotels which also have highest cost of operations compared to the apartments.
The growing clientele for the furnished apartments give a number of reasons for their shift from five-star hotels.
Take the case of Natasha Kimani who spent the December holidays with her family at a furnished apartment in Kilimani, Nairobi.
"There is the feeling of family in staying in an apartment where I still prepare meals the way I do in our home in Nyali, Mombasa," Kimani says.
"The apartments are a good break from hotels where the service may be good but with no privacy since meals are served in a common dinning area," Kimani says.
She says playgrounds in the apartments are good for children who make new friends with peers from other families on holiday. "A furnished apartment is just like your own home it is only different in that you leave the furniture behind for the next guest," Kimani says.
Henry Swan, an Australian tourist says that the low cost has made him book a furnished apartment.
"A tour firm I called from Australia gave me the option of the apartment in Westlands and I resolved to give it a try No regrets yet," Swan says. He argues that he would otherwise have hired three hotel rooms for his family.
He says tourists and expatriates who want to stay for shorter periods and do not want the hustles of rental units opt for furnished apartments.
"The expatriates do not want the hustles of shopping for furniture that will give them a headache to dispose off after their short stay of say six months," Agili says.
Tysons Limited Marketing Assistant Dan Arum says their clients prefer occupying the apartments for what he terms community living.
"Furnished apartments concept is borrowed from the West where families book them on vacations to maintain their unity," Arum says.
Arum says tourists book the furnished apartments two to three months in advance before high season.
"Some of the apartments are serviced meaning the occupants have helpers who cook and wash for them during their stay," Arum says.
Brooks Estate Agents Limited partner Edwin Tubei says the increasing cost of land has also encouraged private developers to buy old property, pull them down for apartments. More of the high-rise buildings are coming up along Lower Kabete Road where Garden Apartments and Nuriana Park are under construction.
Other such developments in Nairobi are along Brookside Grove, Muguga Green, Chiromo Road, Ring Road Westlands, Matundu Lane, School Lane and Brookside Drive.
According to Tubei, investors must go an extra mile to furnish their apartments to convince clients to part with the high charges.
Additional reporting by Harold Ayodo in Nairobi
21st February 2010
An apartment
From Mlimani City village to Mbezi Beach Suburb, Mikocheni to Masaki, the emerging construction of furnished apartments is driving the posh hotels crazy as customers chose to stay in apartmentswhere they consider reasonable in terms of price, security and privacy.
And so does Nairobi where fancy hotels are feeling the pinch of the growing furnished apartment business buoyed mainly by the growing middle and first class executives as well as business executives.
In Nairobi, modern furnished apartments are the in thing in the multi-billion residential real estate sub-sector. Private developers are fast embracing the constructions, which earn them more monthly returns compared to rental units.
The modern apartments do not only target upmarket areas like Westlands, Riverside Drive, Kileleshwa but a number of them are coming up in middle income areas too, such as along Mombasa Road.
However according to property markets experts, in comparison, Dar es Salaam apartments are still more expensive than in Nairobi where rents are reasonable.
Experts in real estate say the furnished apartments, though expensive at the beginning, are more profitable in the long run.
In Nairobi, a home in an upmarket neighbourhood that would ordinarily rent at $769 per month, for example, fetches $1,500 over the same period, if furnished.
But in Dar es Salaam, the same home would cost $1,200 per month, while if fully furnished it costs about $2,500 for the same period.
The concept of furnished apartments is not only catching on in the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam cities in East Africa but other major towns including Mombasa, Kisumu, Arusha and Mwanza are also setting up low cost furnishing.
The new developments are set to create a showdown in the hospitality industry, as they compete with hotels over clients.
While it costs between $100 and $400 per day to stay in hotels in Dar es Salaam or Nairobi depending on the status of the hotelan amount that translate into about $700 or $2800 per week.
This amount is what most furnished apartments are charging per month, a situation that create stiff competition to the well established hotels which also have highest cost of operations compared to the apartments.
The growing clientele for the furnished apartments give a number of reasons for their shift from five-star hotels.
Take the case of Natasha Kimani who spent the December holidays with her family at a furnished apartment in Kilimani, Nairobi.
"There is the feeling of family in staying in an apartment where I still prepare meals the way I do in our home in Nyali, Mombasa," Kimani says.
"The apartments are a good break from hotels where the service may be good but with no privacy since meals are served in a common dinning area," Kimani says.
She says playgrounds in the apartments are good for children who make new friends with peers from other families on holiday. "A furnished apartment is just like your own home it is only different in that you leave the furniture behind for the next guest," Kimani says.
Henry Swan, an Australian tourist says that the low cost has made him book a furnished apartment.
"A tour firm I called from Australia gave me the option of the apartment in Westlands and I resolved to give it a try No regrets yet," Swan says. He argues that he would otherwise have hired three hotel rooms for his family.
He says tourists and expatriates who want to stay for shorter periods and do not want the hustles of rental units opt for furnished apartments.
"The expatriates do not want the hustles of shopping for furniture that will give them a headache to dispose off after their short stay of say six months," Agili says.
Tysons Limited Marketing Assistant Dan Arum says their clients prefer occupying the apartments for what he terms community living.
"Furnished apartments concept is borrowed from the West where families book them on vacations to maintain their unity," Arum says.
Arum says tourists book the furnished apartments two to three months in advance before high season.
"Some of the apartments are serviced meaning the occupants have helpers who cook and wash for them during their stay," Arum says.
Brooks Estate Agents Limited partner Edwin Tubei says the increasing cost of land has also encouraged private developers to buy old property, pull them down for apartments. More of the high-rise buildings are coming up along Lower Kabete Road where Garden Apartments and Nuriana Park are under construction.
Other such developments in Nairobi are along Brookside Grove, Muguga Green, Chiromo Road, Ring Road Westlands, Matundu Lane, School Lane and Brookside Drive.
According to Tubei, investors must go an extra mile to furnish their apartments to convince clients to part with the high charges.
Additional reporting by Harold Ayodo in Nairobi