If you were planning to buy property in Kenya, you had better make a quick decision about it, for very soon you might be priced out of the property market.

Take the case of Eric Okoth and his colleague. The two took out bank loans in 2007, planning to buy pieces of land. However, Okoth saw a car on sale at a low price, and opted to buy it instead. His colleague went ahead to buy a plot at Mlolongo for Sh400,000.

Fast forward four years. Two months ago, Okoth finished paying his bank loan, took out another and went back to Mlolongo to look for the same plot. To his chagrin, the value of the plot had shot up; it would now cost him Sh1.6 million. Disappointed, he ended up buying land in Isinya town in Kajiado district.

The agony of buying property In kenya

The cost of buying land, or a house in Kenyan urban centres has escalated to alarming levels. Market players blame it on a variety of reasons, including the growth of the middle class, investor speculation and even Somali pirates.

An eighth of an acre in a place like Ruai in Nairobi, for example, cost Sh40,000-Sh50,000 four years ago. The same size of land now goes for not less than Sh400,000.

A plot in Mlolongo in Nairobi used to cost Sh400,000 five years ago. The same now costs Sh1.6 million, a four-fold increase in five years. A plot in Kahawa West has increased in price from Sh1.6 million four years ago to Sh2 million today.

In Kilimani, an acre costs Sh80 million while plots in Ruaka have increased in price from Sh4 million in 2009 to Sh6 million today. In Parklands, an acre goes for Sh55 million while a similar size would cost Sh25 million in Eastleigh.