If you own or manage property in Kenya today, you are juggling more than keys. You are
balancing yield, compliance, maintenance, and human relationships, often across cities,
contractors, and changing regulations. At Riparo Properties, we have sat on every side of
the table: landlord, tenant advocate, facilities coordinator, and financial overseer. This
playbook distills what actually works in Kenya right now and where the risks and
opportunities really sit.
Promise: follow these steps and you will reduce vacancies, stabilize cashflow, and protect
your asset without becoming a full time firefighter.
1. Get the Money Right: Clean, Digital, Predictable
Consistent cashflow is the oxygen of property performance. In Kenya, that now means
digital first rent collection and transparent reporting. What to do and what we do at Riparo:
Standardize digital rent collection (M Pesa PayBill, Till or bank transfer) to reduce leakage
and speed up reconciliation. Issue automated receipts and monthly statements so tenants
trust the process and disputes vanish early. Segment arrears follow up with a gentle
reminder, then a formal notice, and finally a legal route. Where amounts are modest,
Kenya’s Small Claims Court provides a faster lane for recovery, with jurisdiction up to
Kenya Shillings 1,000,000. Know your tax position. For residential landlords, the Monthly
Residential Rental Income tax is 7.5 percent of gross rent effective January 1, 2024. This
is considered a final tax, so file and pay on time. Commercial rental income is separate
and allows expense deductions.
2. Tenant Experience Equals Asset Performance
Vacancy is expensive. The most reliable way to keep units full is to keep tenants happy
and informed. Our three part formula is professional onboarding, clear house rules, meter
readings, and a friendly welcome sheet. Fast response loop with ticketing for repairs,
service level agreements by issue severity, and honest timelines. Quarterly pulse check
with a short survey asking if the tenant is happy with maintenance or has safety concerns.
The result is fewer break clauses, fewer reputational hits, and more renewals.
3. Preventive Maintenance Over Emergency Repairs
Kenya’s reality includes power fluctuations, water variability, and coastal corrosion in
Mombasa. These punish assets that rely on fixing things only when they break. What
works: keep an asset register and calendar for servicing lifts, plumbing checks, generator
service, roof and gutter cleaning before the long rains, and fire equipment inspections.
Maintain vendor tiers with a fast but pricier team for critical systems and a lower cost team
for routine works. Always use written work orders and completion sign offs. Keep spare
parts for basic plumbing and electrical systems on site to cut downtime by days.
4. Compliance and Paperwork
Documentation protects your revenue in disputes and accelerates transactions. Non
negotiables in Kenya include proper leases with correct names, defined escalation, service
charge clauses, and termination processes. Title and land records must be verified when
taking on a new management mandate. Kenya has digitized land services and official
online land searches are now the norm. Taxes must be filed correctly, with residential
rental income taxed at 7.5 percent gross and commercial properties requiring clean
records for expense deductions. Document notices and communications. Where suitable,
use the Small Claims Court for money claims up to one million shillings.
Conclusion
The Riparo Properties playbook for property management in Kenya focuses on
onboarding correctly, digitizing rent collection and communication, preventing rather than
reacting, maintaining transparency in service charges, investing where tenants feel it, and
reporting only the metrics that matter. This is how property management shifts from
chasing problems to predictable performance.