There have been real estate implications in the real estate sector is one of the most successful and rapidly developing industries in Kenya. The number of developers and investors has increased in Kenya’s real estate market attracting new prospective property owners and home buyers. Moreover, this has been attributed to the constant increase in the demand for residential and commercial property.

Real estate developers work in one of the most challenging areas of the real estate field. A very important role is played by developers in the construction and development of housing units. Real estate developers need to have broad knowledge and skills in real estate and also in financial management. Real estate developers should possess good communication skills and strong entrepreneurial instincts in the real estate market because they need to sell their ideas to succeed.

Even though there is an increase in demand for property, most of the promises are not fulfilled on time. The major conflict between developers and property buyers is the non-delivery of possession on time. There are numerous cases where homebuyers suffer a financial loss when real estate developers take more than the required time to complete projects. The delay in the completion of projects affects the overall budget of a developer and has an immediate impact on the buyer.

happenings of unfair real estate developers in the real estate industry. Prospective homebuyers should be aware of and on the lookout for such trends before deciding to proceed with a sale agreement. Unknown to most buyers, time-based instalment payment is not fixed on development progress. Most buyers tend to forget to initially attach a certain percentage of work progress obligation to the salesperson before each instalment is made. Besides the late delivery of the possession, numerous malpractices complained against unfair real estate developers such as minimal work progress taking place, deficiency in service, and lack of financial management. Some of the home buyers are at the mercy of unscrupulous developers when minimal or no work progress takes place after instalment payments are made. Most buyers are vulnerable and lack sufficient knowledge when deciding to purchase property, while a huge number of prospective buyers get fixated on the house price.

Before purchasing a house, a buyer must do thorough due diligence. The prospective buyer should verify and go through the original copy of the agreement with the developer. The sale agreement must be inspected in detail.

The government needs to establish a real estate regulatory authority. The authority should approve and vet all real estate property advertisements before they are advertised to the public.  This should ensure that the projects being advertised are authentic and not aimed at defrauding Kenyans. Furthermore, the government needs to establish a  law on off-plan sales commencement. Given that most off-plan contracts are drafted to give the developer flexibility in designing and constructing the building, developers will not normally agree to significant changes. Provided the other elements are present for the unfair contract provisions to apply, in addition to off-plan contracts other contracts will be regulated as standard form contracts.

 

Finally, there should be a fundamental rule that all instalment payments in real estate should be based on project milestones and not time-based. The increase in demand for residential and commercial property has introduced developers who promise or offer special features to attract prospective buyers. Regulations should be put in place to end the impunity of unfair real estate developers. Homebuyers should be keen to identify such unfair practices used by unscrupulous developers, this will safeguard them from future risk or any financial loss in real estate.