The total cost of owning a Nairobi apartment in 2026
Most Nairobi apartment buyers focus on the mortgage payment and ignore everything else. The total cost of ownership runs 30 to 50 percent above the mortgage on a typical compound. Here is the honest 2026 breakdown of what owning an apartment in Nairobi actually costs each year.
Most Nairobi apartment buyers focus on the mortgage payment and ignore everything else. The total cost of ownership runs 30 to 50 percent above the mortgage on a typical compound. Here is the honest 2026 breakdown of what an apartment in Nairobi actually costs each year.
Worked example: KES 12m 2-bed in Kilimani
- Mortgage (90 percent LTV, 14 percent, 25 years): approximately KES 130,000 per month
- Service charge: KES 12,000 to KES 25,000 per month
- Council rates: KES 8,000 to KES 15,000 per year
- Building insurance: KES 8,000 to KES 15,000 per year
- Mortgage protection: typically included with mortgage
- Backup power and water (where relevant): KES 5,000 to KES 12,000 per month
- Maintenance reserve: KES 5,000 to KES 10,000 per month
- Internet, DStv: KES 5,000 to KES 10,000 per month
Annual total
- Mortgage: KES 1.56m
- Service charge: KES 200,000+
- Council rates and insurance: KES 25,000 to KES 35,000
- Backup, internet, maintenance: KES 200,000 to KES 350,000
- Total typical annual cost: KES 2.0m to KES 2.2m
- Mortgage payment is 70 to 80 percent of total
The hidden costs
- Special levies (when the compound fixes something major)
- Major appliance replacement (fridge, water heater)
- Surface and pool maintenance assessments
- KRA monthly residential income tax (if rented out)
- Vacancy void if you have to find a new tenant
If rented out
- Property management: 8 to 12 percent of rent
- MRI (Monthly Rental Income tax): 7.5 percent of gross rent
- Tenant agency commission on new tenants: 1 month rent
- Allowance for vacancy and turnover: 5 to 10 percent of potential rent annually
The mortgage payment is the most visible cost of homeownership and not the largest in percentage terms. The buyers who plan for the full picture sleep better.
How Goldstay handles it
For sourcing and management clients we run the full cost breakdown before purchase. Read also our pieces on service charge explained and salary needed.
Goldstay Research covers macro property data, neighbourhood pricing, rental yields and policy across the Kenyan and Ghanaian markets. The desk publishes the firm's view on market trends, oversupply, currency and the longer term direction of property values.
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