Townhouse

A townhouse is one of a row or cluster of similar houses joined by shared walls. Each has its own front door and usually a small garden or yard. Most have the living room and kitchen downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs, and many in Nairobi come with a DSQ.

Townhouse or maisonette? Kenyan sellers use the two words for much the same thing. "Maisonette" is the everyday Kenyan word for a family house on two floors, whether it stands alone or is joined to its neighbours. "Townhouse" tends to appear in adverts for newer gated developments, especially in Nairobi suburbs such as Lavington and Westlands. One house can be advertised under both names. What matters is what you actually get: shared walls or not, the size of the plot, and how the estate is run. On Kenya Property Centre, townhouses are listed as a type of house, and many of those listings also call themselves maisonettes.

Why developers build them. Joined houses on smaller plots fit more homes on expensive land than detached bungalows would, which is why they cluster in Nairobi and the nearer parts of Kiambu. Survey data reported by the Nation still shows most Kenyans would rather own a bungalow, so the townhouse is mainly an urban choice.

How ownership works. Estates use one of three set-ups:

• each house has its own title for its own plot, with a residents' association or management company running the shared areas;
• the estate is registered under the Sectional Properties Act 2020, so each house is a unit with a sectional title, and the owners together form a management corporation that runs the common areas and collects service charge;
• in older estates, houses were sold on long sub-leases with a share in a management company. The 2020 Act requires sub-leases of flats, maisonettes and town houses that were meant to give ownership to be converted to sectional titles. Ask whether this has been done for the house you are looking at.

Service charge. Gated townhouse estates charge every owner a regular service charge, which landlords often pass on to tenants. It typically pays for guards and the gate, cleaning of shared areas, garbage collection, outdoor lighting and sometimes a borehole, pool or clubhouse. Ask what it covers and whether the house is up to date before you sign.