Maai Mahiu land depreciate as port services revert to Mombasa

Maai Mahiu’s land value has fallen by almost 30 per cent since the announcement of port services transfer to Mombasa from the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD).

This brings an end to the property bubble in Nakuru that saw dealers engage in extreme asset purchases while waiting to benefit from business opportunities that would arise as a result of the mega project.

“The deals were too good to resist. Who would not want to have a piece of the cake…the tripling of the land prices was the icing on the cake and it told the story,” Njuguna Kamau, the former head of the chamber of commerce said.

During his swearing-in as the fifth President, William Ruto stated that the move to transfer port operations to the coastal region was to create jobs for the locals who had lost their jobs earlier.

“This afternoon, I will be issuing instructions for clearing all goods and other attendant operational issues to revert to the port of Mombasa. This will restore thousands of jobs in the city of Mombasa,” the head of state said.

After the president’s address, the economic situation in the area rapidly shifted with many buyers panicking and selling the valuable land they had earlier acquired.

“We expect the price of land to depreciate further given the dynamics of the supply and demand curve, things are not looking rosy,” one land surveyor in Nakuru concluded.

He further added that since the presidential pronouncement, the value of land in the region had dipped tremendously with many buyers trooping to his office wanting to dispose of their properties.

Maai Mahiu not being an agricultural area has further complicated the matter with the main economic activity being the sale of parcels of land.