How much does it cost to furnish a Nairobi apartment in 2026?

Furnishing a Nairobi apartment in 2026 runs from about KES 200,000 for an owner-occupier minimum to KES 5m and beyond at the premium end. The spread is wide because two separate things drive it: how big the unit is, and what standard you are furnishing it to. They are worth pricing separately.

Two variables, not one

Most furnishing budgets go wrong at the first step, by treating cost as a function of bedroom count. It is not. A premium one bedroom costs more than a basic three bedroom, and the two questions have to be answered separately: how many rooms are you filling, and to what standard.

The second question is the one that moves the number. Between an essential specification and a premium one, the same apartment can treble. And the gap is concentrated in six items: the mattress, the sofa, the dining set, the appliances, the window treatments and the soft furnishings. Everything else, the kettle and the chopping board and the bin, costs roughly the same whatever tier you are buying.

Spend where the guest’s body touches the property and save where it does not. The bed, the sofa, the shower and the wifi are the four lines nobody forgives.

Furnishing somewhere to live

These are the numbers for a home. One set of linen, your own taste, and no requirement that anything survive a stranger.

Essential, one to two bed: KES 200,000 to 600,000

• Bed and mattress: KES 30,000 to 70,000
• Sofa set, three plus two or L-shape: KES 40,000 to 100,000
• Dining set, four to six seater: KES 25,000 to 60,000
• Cooker, gas or electric: KES 25,000 to 60,000
• Fridge, 200 to 350 litre: KES 35,000 to 75,000
• Washing machine: KES 30,000 to 60,000
• Television, 43 to 55 inch: KES 35,000 to 80,000
• Curtains, kitchenware, linens, basics: KES 30,000 to 80,000

Mid-premium, two to three bed: KES 600,000 to 1.5m

• Quality leather or fabric sofa set: KES 150,000 to 350,000
• Solid hardwood dining set: KES 80,000 to 200,000
• Quality king or queen bed and mattress: KES 100,000 to 250,000
• Built-in or quality wardrobes: KES 80,000 to 200,000 if not already fitted
• Mid-tier appliances, Bosch, Samsung or LG: KES 250,000 to 500,000 in total
• Quality curtains or blinds: KES 50,000 to 150,000
• Soft furnishings, decor, art: KES 60,000 to 200,000

Premium, three to four bed: KES 1.5m to 5m and above

• Designer or imported furniture
• Premium appliances, Miele or the top of the Bosch range
• Custom joinery and built-ins
• Designer lighting
• Imported soft furnishings
• Art and accessories
• Smart home integration

Furnishing somewhere to let

Why does furnishing to let cost more than furnishing to live in?

Because the specification is different, not because anybody is being overcharged. A home needs one set of bed linen; a let needs three, so a turnover never waits on a wash. A home can have a mattress you personally like; a let needs one that survives four hundred strangers a year. Add blackout curtains, a desk the long stay guest filters on, a spare of every breakable item, smoke alarm and fire blanket, and a full kitchen rather than the pans you happen to own, and the same apartment costs about half again.

It buys something back. A unit specified for letting photographs better, which decides how often it is seen at all, and it breaks less, which is the cost nobody budgets and every operator pays.

Rental grade budgets by unit size

Essential through mid-premium to premium, for a unit being let furnished either on a long lease or nightly.

• Studio: KES 400,000 to 600,000 essential, 600,000 to 900,000 mid-premium, 900,000 to 1.3m premium
• One bedroom: KES 500,000 to 750,000 essential, 750,000 to 1.15m mid-premium, 1.15m to 1.8m premium
• Two bedroom: KES 700,000 to 1m essential, 1m to 1.55m mid-premium, 1.55m to 2.5m premium
• Three bedroom: KES 950,000 to 1.35m essential, 1.35m to 2.1m mid-premium, 2.1m to 3.5m premium

How much does it cost to furnish a one bedroom apartment in Nairobi?

Taking the single most asked version of the question: about KES 200,000 to 400,000 if you are moving in yourself and buying essentials, and KES 500,000 to 1.8m if you are letting it, depending on tier. Most one bedrooms being let in Westlands, Kilimani or Riverside land between 750,000 and 1.15m, which is the mid-premium band and the tier the majority of owners should be buying.

What the extra spend earns back

Furnishing is the only line in a letting budget that changes the rent, so it should be judged against the differential rather than against a cost table. The clearest published case in Nairobi is Riverside One Residency, where a two bedroom lets at roughly KES 140,000 to 150,000 a month unfurnished and KES 270,000 to 290,000 furnished. On a differential of about 130,000 a month, a 1.5m furnish is recovered inside a year.

That is unusually strong and does not hold citywide. A 648,000 annual differential against 1.2m of furnishing is a twenty two month payback, which is still worth doing but is a different decision. The case where it is not worth doing at all is set out in furnished or unfurnished rental.

Where to buy in Nairobi

• Essential: the Mombasa Road furniture cluster, Mlolongo, Naivas Hyper, Carrefour
• Mid-premium: Yaya Centre, Karen Mall, Westgate, Westside
• Premium: Riverside designer showrooms, Westlands importers, custom Karen workshops
• Online: Jumia, Sky Garden and Kilimall at the essential end; showroom-led above it
• Imported to order: materially cheaper for the same quality, at eight to twelve weeks from order to install once sea freight and clearing are counted

Practical 2026 notes

• Custom joinery from a Karen workshop often beats imports on both price and quality for built-ins
• Check appliance warranty terms and whether the brand has local service, which matters more than the badge
• Plan delivery and assembly windows early, because many compounds restrict delivery hours and some require committee notice
• Standardise across units if you own more than one. One spare of everything then covers the lot
• Hold back 10 to 15 percent of the budget for what you forgot. You will need it

What percentage of the purchase price should I budget for furnishing?

Ten to fifteen percent of the purchase price is a workable planning figure, rising towards twenty for a small unit, because the fixed cost of kitting out a kitchen and a bathroom does not shrink with floor area. Treat it as a planning number only. The real budget comes from a line by line list against the actual unit, since what the developer has already fitted moves it substantially.

How Goldstay handles it

We furnish apartments in Nairobi at published fixed prices, from KES 700,000 for a short-let ready studio to KES 2.75m for a premium three bedroom, covering specification, sourcing, delivery, installation, snagging and photography. What is inside each price, what sits outside it, and the delivery time for each route are in our furnishing packages and prices. The furniture is yours outright on installation, with no monthly charge and nothing recovered out of booking revenue.

Once a unit is furnished it can go onto nightly stays under Airbnb management or onto a lease under full long-term management in Nairobi, and neither requires the other. The costs the developer does not mention are in hidden costs a Nairobi developer will not tell you.