_Inside View Kenya 2018: The rise of luxury new developments and gated communities in Nairobi

The number of Kenya’s high net worth individuals has doubled to around 9,400 over the last decade.

The country is now home to the fourth highest number of dollar millionaires in Africa and property is a priority when it comes to ways of investing their wealth.

Where traditionally wealthy Kenyans might have sought a safe haven for their cash in luxury property in South Africa, Dubai, New York or London, they are increasingly seeking high-end products within Kenya itself.

Their current focus is on locations that offer the best education for their children, personal security, an attractive lifestyle and the greatest opportunities for capital appreciation.

Customarily, this type of buyer would have seen the ultimate trophy property as a prodigious home b set on sprawling acres of land, alongside a private security team and an army of staff to maintain it.

Currently, Kenyan buying behaviour has shifted and there is a growing preference for high-end villas on smaller communities that are designed and built to world-class standards. 

Architect Johann De Wet has designed Deerpark Karen’s villas to reflect what Nairobi’s wealthy residents now expect

Few want the costs of owning large tracts of land in an urban setting any more. They want the ability to lock up and go, and the reassurance of shared security, back-up water and electricity.

Such is the mobility of the modern urbanite,” comments architect Johann de Wet, managing partner at Boogertman + Partners Architects Kenya, whose projects include East Africa’s biggest shopping mall, the new Two Rivers in Nairobi, and Nelson Mandela’s family house in Maputo, Mozambique.

De Wet is also the architect behind a new, gated community that he says will redefine luxury living in Nairobi. Deerpark Karen is a new development of 10 villas, priced from US$1.11m (Kshs115m) due for completion in March 2018, in the sought-after Miotoni neighbourhood of Karen.

The affluent suburb – named after Karen Blixen, the Danish author of the colonial memoir Out of Africa, whose farm once stood on this land – is a magnet for British and European expats when they relocate to Nairobi.

This is no transient population though; many stay for generations. Karen has a peaceful, suburban feel combined with the benefit of an easy commute into the Central Business District, and to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, via the Southern bypass – one of various infrastructural upgrades that is driving Karen’s expansion as it becomes an increasingly popular lifestyle location of choice.

Karen boasts many of the city’s international schools, renowned restaurants, a growing number of best-in-class shopping malls and the Karen Golf & Country Club. On its doorstep is the Ngong Forest – one of the few remaining natural forests in a capital city – and the Oloolua Forest, whose trails provide an oasis for residents seeking respite from the hectic city centre.

It’s in this setting, and with this wealthy, well-travelled demographic of prospective buyers in mind, that De Wet has designed Deerpark Karen’s villas to reflect what Nairobi’s wealthy residents now expect.

In a striking departure from the ‘country’ aesthetic that dominates high-end homes in the area – large houses with pitched roofs, more redolent of well-heeled English country homes – he has gone for contemporary, angular Europeanstyle homes that offer the rare luxury of their own private leisure facilities.

Each home is set on half an acre of private land with multiple courtyards, a garden, pool and gym. Next to the pool is the entertainment wing in a separate building, which includes a steam room. “

This is not typical of homes in gated communities, but from my experience, communal facilities in developments are rarely used as they don’t provide homeowners with the privacy to entertain their guests. We have prioritised the need for each home-owner’s privacy in this model,” comments De Wet.

The spaces within are large, openplan and flooded with light – the result of what De Wet describes as “the very restrained use of materials”. The large windows and sliding doors allow the sunlight and breeze to permeate the rooms and provide a connection with the mature woodland that surrounds Deerpark Karen.

Rather than a classic pitched roof, De Wet has opted for flat roofs “to provide better use of internal spaces, including roof space for storage”.

The sense of luxury begins on entering Deerpark Karen via a drive-through Porte Cochere and the houses feature technology that is rare in Nairobi’s gated developments, including CCTV security and electronic chip and pin access in every house.

In keeping with its green surroundings, the development is also ahead of the curve sustainability-wise. “With the increased pressure on energy and water around the world, it is our responsibility to ensure we develop sustainable environments,” says De Wet.

“Deerpark is playing its role by going beyond the statutory need for energy and water conservation measures. There is solar water heating with an added ‘green’ heating feature that uses air to heat water as a back-up for overcast days, and waste water is treated and re-used for gardening.”

By bringing something new to the market that appeals to high net worth domestic and international buyers, Deerpark Karen is proving to be an exceptional development, with 60% of its villas having sold in lessthan eight months since its launch.

They call Nairobi the ‘Green City in the Sun’, and Deerpark Karen makes the most of its natural assets to bring a level of luxury the Kenyan capital has not seen before.