Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.

Due Diligence When You want to buy land in Kenya

Due Diligence When You want to buy land in Kenya

Due Diligence When You want to buy land in Kenya

You might have seen the many cases on the media of people who were conned their hard-earned money by rogue brokers and con sellers as they tried to buy land in Kenya.

It is both a painful and sad scene.

But it all boils down to how you conduct your land purchase in Kenya.

Owing to the many fraudsters out there, you need to conduct your due diligence lest you become yet another Kenyan running to the media crying that you were conned. And the only thing we can do is feel sorry for you.

The land buying process in Kenya needs to be done in a legal and procedural manner.

Let us look at the correct way to do it.

1. Land identification and conducting a search

The first thing is to identify the piece of land that is under sale.

It needs to please you in terms of its location, road network, the social amenities around the area, soil profile, drainage as well as the land terrain.

If it passes that check, you can go ahead and meet the seller and negotiate the price.

The next thing is to conduct a land search at the respective county land registry offices. For example, if you are buying a plot at Kamangu, you will need to go to the land registry offices in Kiambu to have the search done.

You can either go to the land registry offices to have the search done or have a local surveyor do it for you.

For a land search to be done in Kenya, you will have to ask for a copy of the mother title deed from the seller which you present at the registry offices.

A land search unearths vital things such as the acreage, caveats on the title deed, unpaid land rates, unpaid bank loans on the title deed as well as the real owner of the piece of land.

At the same time, you need to obtain two maps demarcating the piece of land. The maps can be obtained from the land registry offices through a renowned local surveyor. One of the two maps is called the land mutation that is usually drawn to scale while the other shows the land with the adjacent pieces neighbouring it.

2. Write a legal land sale agreement with the seller

The land search results should not take more than a day. Once you have them on hand, you can go ahead and engage a lawyer to help you draft a land sale agreement with the seller.

At this juncture, you can pay up 10% of the land price to the seller.

Once you have the sale agreement, you can present this to the land controls board.

The land controls board will vet whether there will be problems from the sale of the piece of land. If there are none, they will approve of the sale and you will be presented with the clearance certificate from the LCB.

3. Transfer of the land and money

You can now have your title deed presented to the surveyor to have the title deed changed.

Here you can pay up the seller the remaining amount.

4. Payment of stamp duty

You will need to pay a stamp duty at the registry offices. The stamp duty depends on location of the piece of land.

5. Conduct a final land search

After a few weeks, the surveyor should present you with a title deed bearing your name as the new owner of the piece of land.

Woo hoo, you are the new owner of the piece of land!

But just one more thing remaining; carry out another land search on the title deed to see that it reflects you as the new owner.


Questions to ask when you want to buy land in Kenya


1. Why is the seller selling it?

You need to know the real reason why the seller is disposing off the land. It could be because of family wrangles and in such a case you need to keep off the piece.

It could also be a distress sale and in such a case you could always negotiate for a lower buying price.

2. How is the drainage of the land?

No one wants to buy a piece of land in the dry season only to have it turn into a water logged region during the rainy season. Due diligence demands that you enquire from uninterested parties how the place drains.

3. What are the owners of the neighbouring lands doing?

No man is an island. There is no better place where this saying applies like when you are buying land. You need to know what the owners of the neighbouring plots are doing with their pieces. It could be that they are setting factories that will be releasing dangerous fumes to your home. It could also be that they want to set up residential flats while on your part, you wish to plant trees. Not that trees are bad but hey, you might interfere into their building process.


Share with your friends