OPINION: Kenya ripe for government-backed property index

It’s said, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. And in the real estate world, property value lies in the buyer's mind given what they plans to use it for. 

In all fairness, most property buyers, are not sophisticated enough to objectively understand the value of what they are dealing in. 

It is common to come across sellers quoting astronomical figures for land, claiming the area to be ‘hot’ and that prices are only going up. This is how they catch gullible buyers. 

The practice is a reflection of Kenya’s unregulated real estate pricing, where speculation runs wild and buyers are left to navigate a maze of arbitrary valuations. 

This is why Kenya is ripe for a government-backed property index—a structured, data-driven approach to land and property pricing that brings sanity to the market.

Why a centralized Property Index?

The Kenyan government has made Affordable Housing a cornerstone of its economic growth strategy. 

While it has chosen the route of actually building houses, as I have argued before, the government has a better route of success through policy interventions. One of the biggest interventions is transparency in land pricing protocols. 

Without a structured pricing mechanism, land remains subject to speculation, and as a key cost of input in home ownership, it pushes the cost of home ownership beyond the reach of ordinary Kenyans.

A property index will not dictate prices but will offer a reliable benchmark for understanding market trends. Investors, developers, banks, and even county governments will benefit from a transparent pricing framework that reduces guesswork and prevents the artificial inflation of land prices.

A joint effort

For a property index to work, the government cannot act alone. It must collaborate with key industry professionals, ensuring the index is grounded in expertise and factual data. 

Some of the critical partners in this initiative should include the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK), who can provide professional land valuation and assessments. 

The second group would be the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) who will track building trends and construction costs. The Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK) can analyze material costs and project feasibility. 

Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) can incorporate mortgage trends and lending patterns. Other key partners would be the County Governments – to supply localized land transaction data and zoning regulations.

With these stakeholders on board, the property index will be a trusted source of market intelligence, reflecting actual price movements rather than speculative hype.

Redefining property value

The success of a government-backed property index will depend on its design and execution. The government has already made certain steps like the activation of the Ardhi Sasa - the single digital repository for land records, replacing manual land registries that were prone to inefficiencies, loss of records, and corruption.

This system allows for real-time access to land ownership details and provides key particulars that can help in creating the index. 

Of course, to make the index work, there is need to standardize valuation methods – creating a nationwide valuation framework that county governments and private valuers must adhere to. The government also needs to encourage open data sharing. 

Ministries, professional bodies, and financial institutions should work together to make real estate data transparent and accessible. Counties should provide structured land pricing based on zoning categories such as residential, commercial, and agricultural use.

Land, in itself, has no inherent value—it is how it is used that makes it valuable. Whether it is cultivated for farming, developed for housing, or preserved for conservation, land must serve a purpose beyond speculative trading.

A government-backed property index will help redefine how we perceive real estate value, shifting focus from speculative hoarding to functional, productive use. The time for such a transformative tool is now.

The author is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MySpace properties