How to avoid being conned in off-plan property purchases
By: Mathew Ndungu – PD Newspaper
The housing model allows the purchaser to invest their money into a project that is yet to be developed or to be completed, on the promise that the property will be fully constructed within a particular time span.
However, the plan which has been the path to homeownership for low-income-earners has recently turned into an unpleasant brew with thousands of Kenyans sinking millions to fraudsters in the real estate sector.
The grievances by most off-plan purchasers include the failure by the developers to deliver on their promises or to deliver them on time and developers delivering poor-quality properties.
Other cases involve purchasers being duped by unscrupulous people who pose as developers only to later find out that the purported developers did not own the land on which the proposed development was to be undertaken.
Experts advise that before entering an off-plan purchase transaction, the purchaser or their advocates should conduct exhaustive due diligence on the parcel of land on which the developer intends to construct the property to ascertain that the developer owns the land.