By M, KNA
Subdued property price rises and ongoing rent hikes in the capital city has seen Nairobi County post a 7.4 percent rise in revenue collection during the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2025.
According to a report by HassConsult, the impressive revenue collection, only last recorded some twenty years ago, were attributed to the rise in property prices index in the capital that saw the rental yields take an upward trajectory.
Overall, the report revealed that the property index results indicated that assets prices went up by 0.3 percent at the end of the fourth quarter cumulatively pushing the annual rates to 7.7 percent for the year, while rents fell by 0.9 percent settling at 2.5 percent by the end of 2025, as rents softened at the coast and other major cities.
However, HassConsult report says rent rises were significantly higher in the capital where sales price went compared to the overall nationally tally, leading to further climbs in rental yields in both the city suburbs and its satellite towns.
“Nairobi’s rental yields have been on a clear upward path for the last two years, climbing steadily above 7 percent after many years of running at between 5 and 6 percent. It’s a shift happening across the board, despite the city’s property fortunes being markedly mixed across different locations,” stated Sakina Hassanali, Co-CEO of HassConsult in a press statement.
Notably, property prices in the 18 city suburbs rose by 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter, while rents rose by 1.5 percent.
The largest decline in sales prices across the year was for apartments in Westlands, down 11.5 percent over 2025, but by only 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter as demand began to catch up with the latest wave of new apartments.
A steep rise in Westlands apartment rents in 2013, as it emerged as the city’s most vibrant quarter, took rents from an average Sh91, 000 a month to over Sh115, 000 in a single year, triggering a raft of new developments.
Nevertheless, successive waves of construction have since led to several dips as new supply came to market, generating new rent falls from January to April 2025, before stabilizing at around Sh134, 000 from May. By the fourth quarter, the stabilization in rents and improved occupancy had stopped the sales price decline.
Similarly, a similar pattern suppressed apartment rents in Kileleshwa and Upper Hill during 2025, both of which turned positive by the fourth quarter, while apartment rents in all other suburbs rose across the year.
“In the apartments market, demand has never stopped expanding, but each area is now finely tuned in the volume of new development it can absorb at a time and very large developments often create a dip in rates as entrants discount to gain full occupancy,” explained Hassanali.
In the market for houses, Runda remained the strongest outperformer, with sales prices up by 12.8 percent across the year, but by only 0.9 percent in Q4. Lavington, Muthaiga and Ridgeways also experienced strong house price growth, at over 10 percent for the year, with the growth in Lavington strongest in the final quarter, up 2.8 percent from September to December.
Further, the growth in rental prices for houses was strong in most of the city’s suburbs, led by Ridgeways, up 9.6 percent across the year, followed by Lavington, at 9 percent. In Q4, house rents rose most strongly in Runda, by 3.1 per cent.
The Co-CEO noted that Nairobi’s satellite towns delivered a stronger performance, however, with property sales prices rising by 4.5 percent in Q4, while rental prices rose by 8.7 percent. Annual house price growth was strong in all the satellites, led by Juja at 12.2 percent.
This growth, she said, slowed in Q4, but remained strong, except in Kiambu, Ngong and Kiserian where prices fell in the final months of the year.
Meanwhile, the house price strength was supported by rapid rises in satellite town house rental prices, led by Ruiru, where rents rose by 15.6 percent in 2025, before stabilizing in the final quarter.
Additionally, the performance of apartments in the city’s satellite towns was more subdued. The prices surged by 10.1 per cent in 2025 in Syokimau, rising 2.2 percent in Q4.
But performance elsewhere was much more mixed, with the biggest decline for the year in Kiambu at 4.4 percent, as the apartment rental prices rose significantly across all satellites.
