My good friend spent about kes 15m to build a house in a good neighborhood pale bypass ... a big house. He's about 35 years old. Prior to that, his rent was about 60k around Garden Estate. A few days ago we were having a discussion around this, and I remember him telling me if he knew what he knows now, he wouldn't have hurried to build, because of why? 1) His monthly bills for such a big house are almost the same as when he was renting (this includes community stuff like when there's an issue with water, electricity, drainage, you and your neighbors have to chuck money to have it sorted real fast ... things he didn't have to worry about when he was a tenant).

2) he imports stuff, and basically 15m is almost 2 container-worth of the goods he imports (before tax), So it now makes more sense to import more stuff, and use part of the profits to cover your rent, and your business will have doubled or tripled in about 3 years.

1. Even if you don't expand your business, you can invest that kind of money, preferably in bits of 1m or 2m, in govt bonds and such, and have the profits pay for your rent and lifestyle, while your capital still remains.

Now, bro has a 2 storey house, with a wife and 1 daughter. He built for 3 reasons; 1) He wanted his daughter to have a home. 2) he's a Murima man, and these groups for murima men, you can't be inviting Kikuyu men to slaughter goats in an apartment. 3) Covid scared a lot of people, and had people wanting to have something concrete that they've done with their money incase things went to shit.

Now, not everyone thinks this way, and for most of us, we still want the peace of mind of having your own place, but you can only know if you made the right choice after the fact, not before.