Kenya's property market is offering investors the highest returns among key global destinations, an industry report now shows, with a jump in prices pushing up the rental yields.
This is driven mainly by the expanding middle class and growth in high earners, notably in education, health, trade and agriculture, as well as mortgage-financed banking staff, which has seen housing demand outstrip GDP growth in the country.
The report by HassConsult from a study of property prices and rental yields in Kenya, South Africa, the USA, Canada, UK, France, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia, found a sharply different growth trajectory for Kenya, driven by the strength of its domestic demand.
Since the year 2000, residential property prices have risen by 201 per cent in the US, compared with 151 per cent in France, and 122 per cent in Singapore. But, in Kenya, they have risen by 425 per cent according to the survey.
With many global property markets currently depressed by high interest rates in heavily debt-leveraged sectors, Kenya has widened the property prices increase with a 7.8 per cent jump in the year to June 2025, representing the highest level of capital appreciation in any of the markets analysed with majority of these properties being bought in cash.
Australia reported the second-highest growth, at 4.74 per cent with Singapore coming in third with 4.15 per cent followed by South Africa (3.46%), UK (2.83%), Switzerland (2.58%) and US (2.38%). Property price increases were at 1.11 per cent in France and negative 1.25 per cent in Canada.
“A critical factor in the strength of Kenya’s housing market has been its source of finance,” said HassConsult Co-CEO, Sakina Hassanali, “Homes in Kenya are fully paid, which makes the market super-resilient. Owners rarely end up grappling with mortgage repayments they cannot meet, preventing the waves of forced sales suffered in other economies."
Less than two per cent of homes in Kenya are mortgage-financed, compared with up to 90 per cent in the international markets analysed.
“Multiple factors are driving down property demand in western and eastern economies, not least of which is declining populations, while the value of property in Kenya’s expanding economy and population only keeps growing,” said Hassanali.
Rental yields for property owners are the percentage of their original property investment they are earning back in rent each year, meaning that the higher property prices go, the lower rental yields tend to fall.
Kenya’s rental yields, however, remain above the global average, at 5.5 per cent, delivering a combined return in the year to June 2025 of 13.28 per cent. This return is higher still for the thousands of Kenyans who have bought properties in off plan developments.
The special report analysed eight prime off-plan developments in Kenya, reporting an average return on investment in 2025 of 18.06 per cent.
“With off plan now the main point of entry for many Kenyans into property, the discounts and instalment payments are creating gains that are, in reality, over twice the norm in other global markets,” HassConsult development sales advisor, Ian Mutinda, noted.
Meanwhile, a remaining but diminishing international vulnerability is the detached house rental market, where declines in international NGO and commercial staff have reduced rental occupancy.
This includes the recent funding cut on USAID, which reduced its activities in the country, affecting hundreds of projects and individuals.
However, strong sales price growth in this segment, as landlords exit, is rebalancing the market further towards domestic occupancy.
These factors have combined to give Kenya higher returns on property investments than the other markets analysed, except South Africa where a prolonged period of depressed property prices has delivered higher rental returns.
