LABAN WALLOGA | NATION The Shree estate in Nyali. Houses in the neighbourhood are going for Sh25 million, up from an average of Sh10 million a few years ago.

Domestic tourism, a burning desire to own property at the Coast, and improved security in the outskirts of Mombasa are fuelling property development in the town.
Developers are keen on exploiting the growing opportunities, constructing budget hotels and apartments in various parts of the city.
Areas such as Changamwe, Shanzu, and Bamburi have in the recent past experienced exponential growth in property development, thanks to improved security and demand for housing units at the beach front.
Shanzu and Bamburi have proved particularly attractive to real estate investors, who have in the past five years been driven by buyers who want a piece near the serene atmosphere of the neighbourhood. The cool breeze of the nearby Indian Ocean is, of course, an additional incentive.
Besides being hot cakes for a ready market dominated by a growing middle class, a number of these properties have also been turned into holiday homes by upcountry investors, says Suresh Hirani of Shree Homes Limited, a real estate company that has developed 200 houses on 30 acres off Nyali’s Links Road at a cost of about Sh1 billion.
“Many of the new properties in this area are three- and four-bedroom houses,” says Hirani.
“Those who have bought them as holiday homes rent them out to friends and relatives or even institutions when they are not using them.”
Seven years ago, Nyali, though an exclusive neighourhood, was relatively affordable to the upper middle class, with residential apartments then going for between Sh8 million and Sh12 million.
Now some of these apartments have been turned into guest houses, with one unit going for between Sh15,ooo and Sh20,000 a day, depending on the tourism calendar.
Developers see easy money in this form of investment, and with Mombasa steadily growing as a tourism and conference destination, many other such developments are in the pipeline in Nyali at the north and Changamwe to the west of the island.
Hirani, for instance, says he will soon be breaking ground for the construction of 48 units of three- and four-bedroom apartments near Nakumatt Nyali.
Congestion within Mombasa island is driving businesses to the outskirts, and the Nyali neighbourhood is bearing the brunt of this exodus.
Houses sitting on large plots are being pulled down in favour of apartments and office blocks, especially along Links Road, a situation that has been likened to what happened to Westlands in Nairobi.
For a long time, Westlands was a sleepy suburb of Nairobi, with a tightly controlled development regime ensuring that the order and exclusivity of the neighbourhood was not interrupted by the tentacular growth of the city.
Then, after decades of maintaining its sheen, the city’s business class saw an opportunity to cater to the consumer and entertainment needs of the nearby population and, within a very short time, the region burst at the seams.