Serenity Residency, Kilimani: a building of nothing but two bedrooms, and the tenant nobody markets to

Serenity Residency is a building of two bedroom apartments. Not mostly two bedrooms: only two bedrooms, in three sizes within 13 square metres of each other, at rents within KES 5,000 of each other. When every owner in a development holds the same product, competing on product is not available, and the interesting question becomes who you are selling it to.

What the building actually is

A completed development on Ngong Road beside Adams Arcade, finished in August 2025 and ready for occupation, made up of two bedroom apartments at 95, 100 and 108 square metres.

The facilities are a genuinely full set rather than a token one: a swimming pool, a fully equipped gym, a children’s play area, secure parking across four levels, high speed lifts, a backup generator, a borehole, manned security around the clock with CCTV, a perimeter wall and street lighting, and fibre ready connectivity. Four levels of parking for a building of two bedroom flats is notably generous and matters more than it sounds for the tenant group this building suits.

Position is the Junction Mall end of Kilimani, five minutes’ walk from the Junction, which is a different neighbourhood in practice from the Denis Pritt and Kindaruma end even though the postcode agrees. It is more local, more mid market and more residential, with less of the diplomatic and corporate traffic that sets rents further north. How the area as a whole is shifting is in how the Kilimani apartment market is changing.

What does an apartment at Serenity Residency rent for?

KES 85,000 to KES 90,000 a month, with the service charge inside that figure. No separate bill for building upkeep, common area maintenance or shared facility costs, which in a building with a pool, a gym and four parking levels is not a small thing to have absorbed.

For an owner that cuts two ways and both are worth understanding. On a search page it is a real advantage, because a single inclusive number beats a lower number with a levy attached that the reader has to guess at. Across the tenancy it removes the most common argument of the first quarter. But it also means that if the levy rises, it rises against your return rather than your tenant’s, so read the budget and ask for the collection rate with more care than an owner elsewhere would. What a levy should cover is in service charge explained.

The rate ladder is almost flat

Why does a 108 square metre apartment cost nearly the same as a 95?

Set the ends of the range against each other. Ninety five square metres at KES 85,000. One hundred and eight square metres at KES 90,000. Fourteen percent more apartment for six percent more rent.

A tenant shown both will take the larger one. Which makes the smallest layout the hardest unit to let in a building where every unit is otherwise identical.

If you own a 95 square metre unit, that is your situation and it is better to know it than to discover it over three empty months. You cannot differentiate on layout, because there is no layout variation. You cannot differentiate on amenity, because it is shared. What is left is floor, outlook and price, and only one of those three is under your control after purchase.

The practical response is to price into the gap rather than against the band. A 95 square metre unit advertised at KES 80,000 inclusive is a clearly better offer than a 108 at KES 90,000, and it lets. Advertised at KES 85,000 it is a slightly worse offer than the larger unit at a marginally higher rent, and it sits. The difference between those two strategies is KES 60,000 a year against potentially two empty months at KES 170,000.

The tenant nobody markets to

Is Serenity Residency a good short let building?

No. Nightly demand in Nairobi follows embassies, corporate offices, hospitals and tourism, and it concentrates in Westlands, Riverside and the northern end of Kilimani. The Adams Arcade stretch of Ngong Road is not where that guest books, and a building composed entirely of two bedroom family flats is not what they book.

What this building is unusually well suited to is a tenant the Nairobi market barely acknowledges: two working professionals sharing. The listings themselves mention sharers, which is rare, and the product fits exactly.

• Two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The basic requirement for sharing, and the whole building has it
• KES 45,000 each. Ninety thousand split two ways, with the service charge already inside it, for a flat with a pool, a gym and secure parking
• Four levels of parking. Two sharers arrive with two cars, which is precisely where most Nairobi buildings, allocating one bay per unit, fall down
• One inclusive number. Sharers split a bill. A rent with a separate variable levy is genuinely harder for two people to agree on than one fixed figure
• Ngong Road. Workable commutes in several directions rather than one, which matters when two people work in different places

The second natural tenant is a small family wanting the Junction, and good schools within reach, on a budget that will not stretch to Denis Pritt Road. Both groups want the same thing from you: a clear inclusive number and a quick, straightforward tenancy.

What to do if yours is sitting empty

1. Advertise to sharers explicitly. Say two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two parking bays, KES 90,000 all in. Almost no Nairobi listing says this and it is exactly what the tenant is looking for
2. Lead with the inclusive rent. The service charge being inside the figure is your advantage and a reader cannot see it unless you say so
3. If you own 95 square metres, price under the band. You are the weakest offer in a building of identical offers and the only lever you hold is the number
4. Publish the floor and the aspect. In a single layout building these are the only facts that distinguish your unit
5. Ask how many units are currently empty. The building is a year old, so this is knowable, and it changes what your rent should be

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

If you are looking to rent here

This is one of the better sharing propositions in Kilimani. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool, a gym, four levels of parking and a five minute walk to the Junction, at KES 85,000 to 90,000 with the service charge already in it, works out around KES 45,000 each for two people. Very little in this neighbourhood competes with that.

Two things to do. Ask for the 108 square metre layout rather than the 95, because the price difference is small and the space difference is not. And ask how many units are empty, since in a building of identical apartments completed a year ago there is usually more than one owner willing to negotiate. If you want us to tell you what is genuinely available, find a home is where to start.

How Goldstay handles it

We manage long lets and short stays in Kilimani, including in this building, and we sold nothing here, 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 Serenity Residency we will tell you to let it long and to market it to sharers, which is the cheaper of our two services, because the nightly demand that would justify the other one is not on this stretch of Ngong Road.

If your apartment is empty, send it to us with the floor and the square metres and we will come back with an achievable rate and a straight view on who to target. What long term management covers is set out in full.

Related reading: how the Kilimani apartment market is changing, Denis Gardens at the other end of Kilimani and the best neighbourhoods for rental yield.