Yesterday I went to Racecourse Gardens for a visit. A development that started in 2014 is now a shell of itself 11 years later. All the photos you can see of it in Google are from many years back during the glory days
What remains now is a dilapidated shell. The gate is rusted and creaky. The paint job has gone from white to brown with dark lines from rain streaming down the roofs. All the metal linings are rusted. The shopping center in the middle only has one store remaining in operation. The doors on the houses are also rusty. The area now has water problems and tanks are in the kitchens and balconies. Worst of all, the surrounding area is a ghetto, hence the views are those of abject poverty.
The people who bought houses here with loans back in 2014 are probably coming to the end of the loan term full of regrets as there is just no collective will amongst all the buyers to maintain high standards. This project will be a slum by the time the kids of the current owners are inheriting the houses from their parents
This is exactly why it is always a bad idea to buy an apartment. You need other people to contribute for any major improvement. If they don’t, you’re fucked. That’s why mimi huona heri maisonette in a nice gated estate, than a fuckin apartment. At least kwa maisonette you have a lot more freedom over you property. No calling meetings to repair lifts, water tanks, solar water heaters, generators, etc. Your happiness does not depend on your neighbor’s whims/financial position like apartment owners. Anything yenye inahitaji watu wengi wakubaliane watoe pesa will suck bigtime because of the diffused responsibility. That being said, apartments are perfect for tenants juu they don’t shoulder that risk. Shida zikianza the tenant will just move. Middle class ndio hukuwa shafted by apartment scams by developers. If you must live in Kileleshwa (whichever hood you are fancying) etc just rent there and invest your money elsewhere. Don’t risk finding yourself in such a shitshow. That 15-20M you would have invested in Kileleshwa for a 3 bed + DSQ heri you find a nice parcel and build the first floor of an apartment block ukule rent pole pole. Then live in Kileleshwa as a tenant in the same apartment you would have bought, minus the risk of such a shitshow.
Is this Kamulu? I’ve been to those sides back in the day when one of my uncles was a big shot land seller uko kwenu. Big big mansions but roads zimejaa vumbi. A few nice roads and it’ll be a nice facelift.
This whole apartments saga can’t work in Kenya. Kenyans are the most chaotic and disorganized people on the planet. It’s very hard for such a people to come together towards a common goal like maintaining a 300 apartment building. That’s asking too much from such a people. It is what it is.
I am curious to see what becomes of those lavish apartments in Westlands when the Chinks leave management to incapable bonobos. I won’t be surprised if they run them to the ground. We’ve seen it before.
