Heartland Homes, Kilimani: the same two bedroom at KES 80,000, KES 200,000 and KES 8,500 a night

Heartland Homes on Kindaruma Road does something useful by accident. The same two bedroom apartment is publicly advertised three ways: KES 80,000 a month unfurnished, KES 200,000 a month furnished, and KES 8,500 a night. Most owners in Nairobi are guessing between those options. Here you can simply check.

What the building actually is

A completed residential tower on Kindaruma Road in Kilimani, with one and two bedroom apartments. Master bedrooms en suite, contemporary fitted kitchens, generous laundry areas, wardrobes with sliding doors, balconies, and on the higher floors genuine panoramic views over the Nairobi skyline.

Shared facilities are a borehole, a backup generator covering the common areas and the lifts, four high speed lifts, a fully equipped gym, a children’s outdoor play area, a maintained garden, an intercom system, CCTV around the clock and ample parking. Four lifts for a single development is more than most Kilimani blocks of this size provide, and on a high floor it is the difference between living on the eleventh floor and regretting it.

Position is minutes from Yaya Centre, Nairobi Hospital and Prestige Plaza, with access via Ngong Road and Argwings Kodhek. This is the same road we wrote about in the Kindaruma Road guide, where the recurring problem is that listings advertise the street and not the building. Heartland is one of the few here that markets itself by name, which is a quiet advantage worth using.

What does an apartment at Heartland Homes rent for?

Unfurnished, a one bedroom is quoted at KES 55,000 a month and a two bedroom at KES 75,000 to 80,000, on terms of one month’s rent plus two months’ deposit. Furnished, an eleventh floor two bedroom with skyline views, a smart television, reliable wifi and a washing machine is advertised at KES 200,000 a month or KES 8,500 a night.

Note what the furnished listing is and is not. It is one specific unit, high up, with a view, furnished properly. It is not what a middle floor two bedroom with a partial outlook and adequate furniture will achieve. Treat KES 200,000 as the top of the furnished range rather than its middle.

Three rates, one decision

Should I furnish and let monthly or nightly at Heartland Homes?

Start with the comparison owners usually skip, between the two furnished options. KES 200,000 a month against KES 8,500 a night means nightly letting must fill about 23.5 nights every month just to draw level. That is roughly 78 percent occupancy, before a single cost is subtracted.

Seventy eight percent occupancy to match a number you can have by signing one tenant. That is not a close decision.

Our Kilimani band for a genuinely well presented and actively managed short let is 62 to 74 percent across a full year. The crossover sits above the top of that band. And the nightly route then has to absorb platform commission on every booking, a full turnover clean after every departure, and short stay management at roughly double the long let fee because it is roughly double the work.

So the ranking at Heartland Homes, on published rates, runs: furnished monthly first, nightly second, unfurnished monthly a distant third.

• Unfurnished monthly, KES 80,000. No furnishing outlay, no operational work, and you are leaving well over half the achievable rent on the table
• Furnished monthly, KES 200,000. One furnishing outlay, one tenant, no void risk between guests, and two and a half times the rent
• Furnished nightly, KES 8,500. The same furnishing outlay plus continuous work, and it only wins above about 78 percent occupancy

The contrast with Denis Gardens is instructive. There, no furnished monthly rate is published and the nightly rate sits high against the unfurnished rent, so nightly letting wins from about 31 percent occupancy. Same neighbourhood, opposite conclusion, and the difference is entirely in which rates the building publishes. The arithmetic both ways is in short let against long term rental.

Why the gap is this wide

Why is the furnished rate two and a half times the unfurnished one?

Because the two rates are set by two different markets that happen to share a staircase.

The unfurnished KES 80,000 is set by the ordinary Kilimani rental market. Your tenant owns a sofa, has a year to look, and is comparing your flat against every other two bedroom within a kilometre. You compete on price and condition and there is a lot of competition.

The furnished KES 200,000 is set by corporate arrivals, relocations, extended business stays and the medical traffic drawn by Nairobi Hospital just up the road. That tenant is frequently spending an employer’s housing allowance, needs the apartment to work from the first night, and is comparing you against a serviced apartment or a hotel room rather than the flat downstairs. Against a hotel at KES 200,000 a month, a furnished two bedroom with a kitchen and a washing machine is cheap.

That is the whole explanation, and it generalises. Across the buildings we manage in, the furnished premium tracks almost perfectly with whether an employer is paying. Where it is a salary, furnishing adds a third. Where it is an allowance, furnishing doubles the rent. What the furniture itself costs is in the cost to furnish a Nairobi apartment.

What to do if yours is sitting empty

1. Price the furnished monthly route before anything else. It is the option most owners here never cost, and at this building it wins
2. Publish the floor and photograph the view. The furnished KES 200,000 listing is an eleventh floor unit and it leads with the skyline. On Kindaruma Road, where every listing claims the same amenities, outlook is the differentiator
3. Name the building. Most listings on this road sell the street. Heartland markets itself by name and you should too
4. Market to employers and the hospitals. Relocation agents, corporate housing desks and Nairobi Hospital are where the KES 200,000 tenant comes from, and portals are where they are not
5. Review the deposit terms. One month plus two months deposit is three months up front, which is normal here but does narrow your tenant pool. Know whether you are willing to flex it before a good applicant asks

The general diagnosis is in why your Nairobi rental keeps going vacant, and how to set the number is in pricing a Nairobi rental.

If you are looking to rent here

Unfurnished, Heartland Homes is good value: KES 55,000 for a one bedroom or KES 75,000 to 80,000 for a two bedroom in walking reach of Yaya Centre, with four lifts, a borehole and a generator, is a sound deal by Kilimani standards. Budget for three months up front, since one month’s rent plus two months’ deposit is the advertised term.

If you are looking at the furnished units, know that the same apartments let unfurnished at a quarter to a third of the furnished rate. That exchange is fair for a six month assignment and poor for a three year stay. For anything over a month, ask for the monthly rate rather than thirty times the nightly one, and ask what it includes. If you want us to tell you what is genuinely available, find a home is where to start.

How Goldstay handles it

We manage short stay and long lets in Kilimani, including on Kindaruma Road, and we sold nothing in this development, so there is no projection of ours to defend. We charge 10 percent of rent collected on a long let and 20 percent of revenue on a short stay, with no setup fee and no exit fee. At Heartland Homes we will usually recommend furnishing and letting monthly, which pays us the lower of our two fees, because on the building’s own published rates that is plainly the better business for the owner.

If your apartment is empty, send it to us with the floor and the layout and we will come back with all three rates for your specific unit so you can see the comparison yourself. What Airbnb management and long term management each cover is set out in full.

Related reading: Kindaruma Road, the same street, furnished or unfurnished and the Kilimani host guide.