Where Nairobi County imposes a strict half-acre minimum holding in Karen, Kerarapon, which falls under Kajiado County, has its buyers secure as little as a quarter-acre, and in rare cases even an eighth of an acre. Over the years, this has created a flexible market that has appealed to a new generation of home owners and developers.
Kerarapon long played second fiddle to its better-known and better-served neighbour, Karen. While buyers seeking quiet, upscale suburbs flocked to Karen’s gated villas and tree-lined boulevards, Kerarapon remained a semi-rural fringe dotted with family homes and pockets of farmland.
However, as prices in Karen climbed beyond the reach of middle- to upper-class buyers, the attention shifted to Kerarapon. The neighbourhood opens with a single long stretch of tarmac, a two-lane road with some parts having small shops, sharing space within the modest buildings.
Motorcycles idle by a small bus stop at the entrance, their presence announcing that you have stepped into a self-contained pocket of Nairobi.
As you drive further in, signposts for Drive 1 through to Drive 26 mark off leafy lanes that give way, snaking to the suburb. Unlike Karen, where the area has resisted retail development and can rarely tolerate small shops with a preference to shopping malls, at Kerarapon, they embrace it.
Mary Okoth, 58, is among the homewners who have called Kerarapon home since 2009. She remembers when the neighbourhood’s identity was closer to the countryside, long before it became a magnet for developers and young professionals.
“When we moved here, it was very quiet. We had cows just down the road, and the air was so fresh, you could hear birds chirping in the morning. There were weeks when you didn’t see a new house coming up, unlike now when we have so many projects that are ongoing, if not finished,” she says.
Ms Okoth, a doctor, says when she and her husband bought their land, all they wanted was to move far away from the Nairobi life rush.
“We bought this place for Sh12 million, which by then was also very expensive because of Karen. However, we didn’t know it would grow to what it is now. My work is very demanding, and I wanted to build a home where there was peace of mind. We still have the peace now, but with a little distraction,” she says.
Houses in Kerarapon on September 23, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
She pauses, then points toward the commotion on her far right: “Today, you drive in on a week-day, and there are trucks everywhere. Every corner has a new wall rising, every lane has workers carrying sand and stones. The place has been good for property values; I will not deny that. You can imagine our land is worth almost Sh40 million now, if we decide to sell it.”
For younger residents like Kingston Gitonga, who bought a quarter-acre just two years ago, Kerarapon’s scenery is exactly the attraction they were looking for. Mr Gitonga admits to their prior attraction to Karen.
“We wanted the Karen lifestyle,” he says. “The greenery, the schools, the peace, but every time we looked at listings in Karen, the figures were just impossible. My wife and I wanted a place we could settle, build our own home, and stop paying rent. That is when we turned to Kerarapon, it still feels like Karen in many ways,” he adds.
Mr Gitonga speaks like someone who feels he has found a sweet spot with affordability that comes with his Sh36 million land investment. “The quarter-acre we bought is not small; it gives us enough room for a garden and a proper five-bedroom house. And already, the value has gone up since we bought the place,” he says.
Houses in Kerarapon estate on September 23, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
Prices gap keeps demand steady
Pharex Eradion, a real estate agent at Karen Village Commercial Spaces, says the result of the growth of Kerarapon is a market where standalone homes now dominate.
Most of these houses, he says, sit on quarter-acre plots. In addition to own homes, younger professionals are increasingly drawn to rental properties in the area, seeking to escape Nairobi’s crowded and overpriced rental market.
“A modern three-bedroom home in Kerarapon will cost you about Sh150,000 per month. The same house in Karen would be almost double, going for about Sh350,000, depending on location and extra things such as swimming pools or larger acreage,” he says.
Mr Eradion also notes that the area has seen a measured type of growth that has surpassed the explosion of gated estates, which is witnessed elsewhere.
“There are not many gated estates in Kerarapon. There are about four estates because most houses are standalone. But business is growing as per real estate, with retail shops coming up, and we are seeing more developers looking for big chunks of land because they want to build townhouses and commercial ventures like supermarkets, hospitals, schools, even mosques and churches.”
A section of Kerarapon estate on September 23, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
In Karen, an acre of land today, Mr Eradion says, will range from Sh80 million to Sh130 million, depending on its proximity to Ngong Road, soil type and the surrounding amenities.
Half-acre parcels of land can cost around Sh40 million to Sh45 million, with the loam soil plots priced lower and land with indigenous trees commanding a premium. By contrast, Kerarapon’s average acre goes for about Sh60 million. Although he says the eighth-acre plots are rare, when available, they range from Sh7 million to Sh9 million.
The demand in the area has also been stable and diverse.
“We are seeing more buyers wanting to build their own homes. The buyers are mostly these young professionals who are out in the market trying to get away from paying rent. We also get clients from the diaspora. Retirees are not many, but developers are putting up gated communities trying to meet the ratios landlords are providing,” he says.
A shift in tenant preferences has also helped Kerarapon’s case. Mr Eradion says Nairobians who are weary of the high-rise structures in places like Kilimani and Kileleshwa are turning to lower-density areas that promise them space and privacy.
That privacy search has trickled down to rentals. “Beyond these high-end villas that are in the area, a one-bedroom unit in a shared compound goes for Sh20,000, which helps to provide an entry point for younger tenants and staff housing for the growing number of families who are settling in the neighbourhood,” Mr Eradion says.
Additionally, the area’s growth is not tied to the flexible land holdings alone; it is also tied to the area’s infrastructure and services. The improved road connectivity has opened up the previously inaccessible plots, although the residents still wait for the full widening of Ngong Road that will help to ease daily traffic. Proximity to international schools has also boosted Kerarapon’s profile among the middle-class and diaspora families who are keen on shorter commutes for their children.
Still, zoning remains a contentious issue. “The challenges investors face in regards to zoning are that some developers want to put up a five-floor apartment, and in that area, because of zoning, the residential association lobbies against it since they don’t want the dominance of commercial apartments,” says Mr Eradion.
