The government’s push to cap rent increases on commercial and residential premises has received backing from a parliamentary committee in a law that seeks to protect tenants from arbitrary rental changes.
It is a government-backed Landlord and Tenant Bill of 2021 which demands that rent increase should not exceed the annual average inflation rate for the preceding year.
This means rent increase this year will be capped at 5.2 percent, the average 2020 inflation, if the Bill becomes law.
Landlords have been given a window to breach the average inflation rate in case of sharp increases in rates paid by counties and other State agencies or when they introduce an additional service to clients like security, garbage collection or home internet.
Housing has been one of Kenya’s fastest growing sectors over the past decade, fuelled by heavy demand and returns that easily outpaced those of equities and government securities.
This has seen rents surge with HassConsult, a real estate firm monitoring property price index, saying asking rents in the city have surged nearly threefold from 2007.
