Many Investors take shortcut when investing in Real Estate and they pay dearly, you may be lucky but don’t take chances.
Follow the following 10 steps to avoid being conned when buying property in Kenya.
Step 1: Ask the seller to show you the original Title deed or copy. Carry-out search from local land registry to ascertain the ownership and know if there are any caveat or incumbrances (liens) on the land. Know if the property has any land rates that are due.
Step 2: Buy 2 maps from ministry of land and also get coordinates of the parcel of land you want to buy called mutation. The other map is to show the neighbouring lands.
Step 3: Engage Surveyor to ascertain the land marks and verify the details on the map, check out all corner beacons.
Step 4: Engage an advocate to draft a sale agreement, on terms you will agree with the seller.
Step 5: Pay some deposit, the law says 10%, but you can agree on that, however, if you pay 40% and above you can start development on the land.
Step 6: Book a meeting with lands control board (LCB). They meet once a month, LCB will issue you with consent for the land you are purchasing.
Step 7: Pay the remaining balance after getting consent from LCB.
Step 8: Go to local land registry with transfer documents such as KRA Pin, 2 passports photos and a copy of the Title Deed to change ownership.
Step 9: Pay the stamp duty according to the value of the land, 4% of the sales value in municipality and 2% of sales value in rural areas.
Step 10: Do a search again to confirm that the ownership has been updated and the land registry has updated their records, (green card for freehold title and white card for leasehold title) and it reads your name.
The above ten steps are key in land acquisition, it’s good to follow each one of them to have a worry- free in land transaction process.
