Nairobi Apartment Owners To Pay Land Rates Beginning January

• Nairobi apartment owners will be required to start paying land rates to the county in January 2024
• The unit holders will also be required to pay land rates for the common areas, such as the playground and the swimming polls
• The county has adopted a new land valuation system that will be used to assess the land rates

Elijah Ntongai, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, leverages more than three years of expertise in financial, business, and technology research, providing insights into both Kenyan and global economic trends.

Nairobi county has announced that people owning title deeds for units in storey buildings, will be required to pay land rates as of January 2024.

The Sectional Properties Act, already in effect, requires apartment owners to pay land rates even when they own units in storey buildings.

"Unit owners who have titles for their units ought to pay rates to the county because they are registered titles," said Stephen Mwangi, the county executive for built environment and urban planning.

Those living in apartments will be required to pay land rates for common areas, including lifts, playgrounds, and swimming pools.

Overtaxing Nairobians

Mwangi said that the county has no plans to overtax its residents in areas where the land rates are very high.

"The values of land in Nairobi, if you look at some areas, they are quite high, so the government is sensitive. It does not want to over-tax its citizens.

We have gone down to a very reasonable percentage so that you are paying almost similar to what you were paying before," said Mwangi.

This move by Nairobi county is an effort to bolster revenue collections, having collected just 7% of the target revenue in the concluded financial year.

New land valuation and rates

The land rates to be paid will be determined based on the size of the apartments and the location.

The county adopted a new land valuation system and reviewed land rates as per the 2019 draft valuation roll introduced in the county assembly in 2021.

Nairobi spends zero on development

In other news related to Nairobi county, the Auditor General's report showed that some counties, including Nairobi, spent zero KSh on development in the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.

Council of Governors defended governors who did not spend on development in Q1, financial year 2023/24, saying they had to settle pending bills and expenditures from the previous year.

CoG Chairperson Anne Waiguru, in a statement, pointed to four main issues that contributed to the lack of spending on development activities.