Unity East, Tatu City: a two bedroom at KES 55,000 with the service charge already in it

A two bedroom at Unity East lets for about KES 55,000 a month, and the service charge is already inside that figure. Both halves of that sentence are unusual in Kenya, and together they describe a letting business that works nothing like the Westlands and Riverside towers most Nairobi advice is written about.

What the development actually is

Unity East is a residential estate inside Tatu City, the master planned development off Kiambu Road in Ruiru. Two bedroom apartments with the master en suite, open plan living and dining, modern kitchens with granite worktops and a breakfast counter, fitted wardrobes, large laundry areas, and balconies with glass railings and floor to ceiling sliding doors looking over the parkland.

The shared facilities lean family rather than executive: a swimming pool, a gym, a coffee shop, secure parking, CCTV, landscaped common areas, and a recreation area with badminton and volleyball courts, a basketball pitch, a sand play pen and a bonfire area.

What sits behind that matters more. Tatu City supplies its own power, water, waste and road infrastructure, street lighting and security, and it is a genuinely walkable community with schools, parks, shops and businesses inside it. Crawford International School is about a kilometre away, Nova Pioneer is close, and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital is nearby. Access runs to the Nairobi CBD via the Thika Superhighway and the Northern Bypass, and to JKIA about 20 kilometres away via the Eastern Bypass.

What does an apartment at Unity East rent for?

Published listings put a two bedroom with master en suite between KES 52,500 and KES 62,500 a month, with KES 55,000 and KES 58,500 the figures that appear most often, and in most cases the service charge is inside that rent. A furnished two bedroom is advertised separately at USD 600 a month, about KES 78,000, on a twelve month lease with utilities extra.

That is a narrow spread for four different agents, which tells you the rate here is well established rather than aspirational. It is also the clearest contrast in our portfolio: the same money would not cover a fortnight in the furnished Riverside stock we manage.

The wider case for the area is in Ruiru, Tatu City and beyond and investing in Kenya’s smart cities.

The levy is inside the rent, and you should say so

Is the service charge included in the rent at Unity East?

Most of the published listings here quote a two bedroom at KES 55,000 or KES 58,500 inclusive of service charge. That is the minority practice in Nairobi. The usual arrangement is to advertise the rent and then add a levy of KES 8,000 to 15,000 a month, which the tenant discovers somewhere between the viewing and the lease.

A single number a tenant can budget against beats a lower number with a second number attached to it, even when the second arrangement is cheaper.

This is worth real money to an owner in two ways. On a search page, a tenant scrolling listings compares headline figures, and an inclusive KES 58,500 reads as better value than KES 50,000 plus a levy they cannot see. And across the tenancy itself, the single most common argument in the first quarter of a Kenyan lease is what the service charge covers and who is responsible for an increase in it. Including it removes that argument entirely.

Two cautions. Confirm that inclusion actually applies to your unit and your lease rather than assuming it from a neighbour’s listing, because it varies scheme by scheme. And understand that if the levy is inside your rent then an increase in it comes out of your return rather than your tenant’s pocket, so read the budget and the collection rate with more attention than an owner elsewhere would. What a levy should cover is in service charge explained.

The furnished premium here is normal, and that is the tell

A furnished two bedroom at Unity East is advertised at USD 600 a month, roughly KES 78,000, on a twelve month lease with utilities extra. Against an unfurnished KES 55,000 to 58,500 that is a premium of about 35 percent, which is an ordinary Kenyan furnished premium.

Hold that beside the buildings we manage in on Riverside Drive, where furnishing roughly doubles the rent, and the pattern becomes clear. The furnished premium in Nairobi is not really a function of the furniture. It tracks whether an employer is paying. Where the tenant is a diplomat, a UN officer or an executive on a posting with a housing allowance and a suitcase, furnishing transforms the rent. Where the tenant is a family paying out of a salary, furnishing adds a sensible third and no more, because they own a sofa already.

Unity East is firmly the second case. Furnish it if you want to reach the smaller pool of people arriving without possessions, and expect a third more rent rather than double. Both sides of the decision are in furnished or unfurnished.

Why this is not a short let building

Can I run a short let at Unity East, Tatu City?

Nightly demand in Nairobi is generated by business travel, embassies, hospitals, NGOs and tourism, and all of it clusters in Westlands, Kilimani, Riverside and the city centre. None of it is in Ruiru. Tatu City is about thirty minutes from the CBD on a good run, which is fine for a commute you make daily by choice and wrong for a guest booking three nights near a meeting.

Look at what the development itself advertises. The furnished offer is a twelve month lease at USD 600 a month with a discount on the first month, not a nightly rate. Everything that makes Unity East attractive, the schools a short walk away, the parks, the estate infrastructure, the gated security, is valuable to a family over years. None of it is valuable to a guest over nights.

What to do if yours is sitting empty

1. Advertise to the schools. Crawford International is about a kilometre away and Nova Pioneer is close. A family choosing that school is choosing housing at the same time, and almost nobody markets to them directly
2. Lead with the inclusive rent. Say “KES 58,500 including service charge” rather than KES 58,500, because the inclusion is the advantage and a reader cannot see it otherwise
3. Photograph the park view. Floor to ceiling balcony doors onto parkland is what this estate has that a Ruiru apartment block does not, and the listings describe it instead of showing it
4. Sell the infrastructure plainly. Reliable water, power, waste and street lighting is the actual product Tatu City sells, and to a tenant who has lived through a dry borehole it is worth more than a gym
5. Do not furnish for nightly letting. Furnish for a twelve month tenant if you furnish at all

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

Unity East is one of the better value family lets within reach of Nairobi, and the reason is unglamorous: at KES 55,000 to 58,500 with the service charge inside it, you get a two bedroom with the master en suite, a pool, a gym, parkland and an estate where the water and the power actually work. In most of Nairobi that money buys considerably less certainty.

Check two things. Confirm in writing that the quoted rent really does include the service charge for your specific unit, since not every listing in the estate is on the same basis. And be honest with yourself about the commute, because thirty minutes to the CBD is a good run and not every run is a good one. 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 at Tatu City, including at Unity East, 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 Unity East we will almost always recommend the long let, which is the cheaper of our two services, because the nightly demand that would justify the other one is thirty minutes away in Westlands.

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

Related reading: Ruiru, Tatu City and beyond, the best neighbourhoods for rental yield and short let against long term rental.