Real estate boom under new EA Market

“Those professionals who have been serving these companies will follow them across the borders” to continue working for them, Mr Okumu said.

Among the well-known Kenya-based real estate firms that have been operating in the other EAC member states are Knight Frank, Gimco and Regent Management.

Regent Management chief executive Wilberforce Oundo says the Common Market will spur growth in the region’s property industry “as a result of cross-border investments”.

This growth, he says, is hinged on the fact that the banking industry will become borderless.

Banks are the main clients of real estate professionals, who provide them with valuation services for mortgages and other forms of loans.

Regent formally opened an office in Kampala, Uganda, in September 2009.

This decision, says Mr Oundo, was informed by the anticipation of “the huge market” that was bound to open up under the Common Market.

It was also because most of Regent’s targeted clients, mostly banks and property developers, had started operating across the region.

Mr Oundo says the response to their entry into Uganda has been good.

He says the Common Market will also allow for cross-border transfer of technical skills. Kenya, he says, will benefit hugely from Uganda’s huge pool of unemployed real estate professionals.

“Uganda has a huge supply of real estate graduates, more than the country can absorb,” he said.

Market players say Kenya, the dominant economy in the region, has a shortage of professionals “since the University of Nairobi is not producing enough Land Economics graduates.”

The Institute of Surveyors of Kenya, the industry lobby, is already organising workshops to sensitise its members — who include valuers, estate managers and land surveyors — on the opportunities that the Common Market presents.

“We want to train them on the opportunities available,” said ISK chairman Collins Kowuor.