You buy a bungalow and spend 4 hours everyday in Traffic! If you are thinking about retirement, buy a bungalow by the beach. For the actual life that you live on a day to day basis… apartment any time and - with all the trappings of a swimming pool, gym, supermarkets, schools nearby let alone personal security. In a city like Nairobi, the quality of life in an apartment in a middle class area overwhelmingly outweigh the little service charge you are talking about.
They actually have documents, which are only recognized by the company charging those service charges. Going the legal way to kick out that company is very expensive for an individual. Even worse, organizing for a class suit of tenants in an apartment complex is almost impossible. So, buying a unit is like buying hot air.
What is the cost of service charge? How much rent does a person in a neighboring block pay monthly for a similar unit? How do the two compare?
Get out and go to your destination early.
You got this wrong…you buy (not rent) an apartment and you co-own the property with all the other owners through a management company. You as a co-owner (not tenant) actually determine a fair service that will maintain the value of your investment (common area lights, grounds cleanliness, maintenance, security etc). The lease document on your apartment are actual ownership documents like any other.
How easy/hard is it to kick out a management company? At the lands office, does your name appear on the title deed? Yes or no? What prevents directors of that company from profiting from high service charges at the expense of all other tenants?
Look at it this way. YOU are the management company meaning you are also a director. You just decide amongst the owners who are the officials for registration purposes. There is usually transparency on how service charge is collected(standard rate) and spent (on things like salary of caretaker, lights bills, city rates or even maintenance)…monthly collection and expenditure reports shared with all owners (not tenants).
Dont be naive. In an apartment complex of 1000 units, you cant all be directors. There has to be about 20 people who are tenants/with units, who run the project on behalf of the rest. Those people select the garbage company, the cleaning company for common areas, security company etc. What prevents these people from “eating”? Nothing. I asked you a simple question, which you are dodging. Ask an apartment owner in a big project how much they pay as service charge. Ask a tenant of a similar unit how much rent he pays. Then check the difference. Most of the time, the service charges are more than 20% of the rent in that neighborhood. I know of a place where rent for a one bedroom unit is 20k. The neighbouring block is fully sold out, but their service charge is 4500Ksh. Who is better? From there I am standing, I would rather be a tenant, not an owner.
Lavington.
Rent Kshs 120,000.
Service Charge 4,000.
Chances are there are not many tenants in that development, so you can all manage effectively. Are they more than 50 units?
I was brought up in Mombasa.And people there lived on urban works for centuries
So No.
There is something called a Sectional Property Title that one gets if you buy an apartment,whose register is at the Land Registry and is no different from a Title Deed.
So No.
There is such a thing as a Title Deed for an apartment.
I live in Westlands
Wake up at 7.
At work by 8.30
Meanwhile the bungalow owners woke up at 5 to go to work.
This allows me to sleep even close to midnight and wake up refreshed.
Meanwhile the bungalow owners rush home by 7.
There lies the difference.
Service charges for mansions often exceed 10,000.That is the case with my parents area in Mombasa where the population density is low and they have to maintain street lights,external security,
The max service charge for apartments is 5k and that is in Lavington/Birmingham
Westlands It is 3500-4K.Parklands the same
:eek:.People pay rent with all that money?
:eek::eek:That rent is through the roof. Where do you get all that cash.
get an apartment in upperhill. before they skyrocket prices
Sasa wewe…Wacha tu.
Are you referring to this?
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One West is 250k rent na mnashtuka. Clearly. Lanes.