Not In Real Estate: Recent Episodes
Nashon
A weekly podcast where astute Construction and Real Estate expert, Nashon Okowa, dissects, disabuses and unpacks Real Estate investment ideas, strategies and challenges
Government says they have created over 140k jobs through affordable housing over the last two years. Is this true?
The Kenyan National Building Code 2024 was launched recently. However, I do not find much that is 'National' about it. Here is my concerns with this code,
What are the various construction approvals in Kenya? Who is involved and what is the process of obtaining them?
What to expect in the Construction and Real Estate industry this year. How is the year looking?
Today, we have normalized the abnormal, cost overruns on projects has become a norm. It is almost a 'criminal offence' to finish a project within the budget. How dare you? Projects are drowning in unbridled careless cost variations that is worse on the public sector. Nairobi is replete with stalled projects due to unabated cost variations. How do you manage to execute a project within the set budget? and is it even possible? I discuss that at length in this podcast.
Finishing projects within the set timelines has become an expensive luxury in our industry today. Why is it so? Why are we unable to finish projects on time? I explore this extensively in this episode.
Are you thinking of borrowing money from a bank or Sacco to build your house? Here is one of the most critical things to carefully pay attention to.
The society has somehow carefully conditioned us to believe that if you don't own a house then you are failure. Home ownership is somehow equated to arrival at the success summit. However, sometimes, renting instead of buying can be the most sensible financial decision. Listen in as we deliberate on this.
The housing levy has been one of the most debate public issue probably in the last century. The government's intention is to have a 1.5% housing levy on the salaried citizens and use this money to fund the affordable housing agenda. In this episode I interrogate the potential success of this agenda and Levy.
We've had a robust, healthy, debate as country on what is now the Finance Act 2023. Be it the housing levy or the taxation on the imported construction material or even the increased taxation on clinker importation, its been robust. But with now the bill passed into an act, I look at the expected impact of this Act to the construction sector.
Commercial Real Estate investments are those investments done with sole purpose of business. What are the various strategies you can use to enter this market? We discuss them here.
Everyone seems to be complaining; a poor-quality house, overbudgeted house, cracking house or even no house for those living in the diaspora. What is the problem? I discuss the common mistakes we make while building back in the villages.
My peremptory rule for any good property investment is that; any property you buy must earn you an annual rent that is 10% of its value or cost. In this episode, I explore how you can use this rule, rental yield and payback period calculations to determine a good property to invest in.
More often than not, most real estate developers jump into real estate development with half the information, in most cases with minimal market and financial information. However hard you may think of it, people enter real estate development with hearsay. The number of stalled, unsold or unrented properties has augmented in the past few years. In this episode, we discuss the imperativeness of undertaking the feasibility study and comparative market analysis (CMA).
For the second administration running, the Kenyan government has centralized provision of affordable housing as a key agenda. What must they do to ensure it succeeds this time? We discuss...
The need to successfully manage a project is no longer a luxury - it is a necessity. In this episode I discuss the critical role a Project Manager plays in the context of 21st Century built environment challenges.
Due diligence on land is no longer doing just a search at land registry office. In this episode I discuss four ways to efficaciously carry out due diligence on any land.
Building collapses have become synonymous with our construction and real estate industry - it is an unfortunate expected phenomenon. We are becoming numb to it. But why are building collapsing unabatedly? And why do we seem to have given up? This episode interrogates the deep contributors to building collapses.
In this episode we discuss how to interrogate the last three of the 7 critical activities to undertake before buying a house off -plan, or nay house for that matter. Watch the previous episodes on the first four if you missed it.
This episode delves into the key areas that any house buyer must interrogate in the sale agreement and also discusses the construction statutory approvals required before buying a house.
Buying a house, though immensely treated as an event, is a process - an elaborate process. Here is Part 01 of the 7 critical areas to interrogate before settling on buying property. These boxes must all tick: MUST! Tune in to the next episodes for more discussions on this.
Too many people today are torn and are agonizingly grappling with the decision on whether to build or buy a house. This episode discusses the imperative factors to consider before making a decision including the pros and cons of each option.