A Guide To Understanding The Land Buying/Transfer Process In Kenya

Understanding the land buying/transfer and registration process in Kenya is of utmost importance to avoid the pitfalls many have found themselves in. Before embarking on a property hunt, it is advisable to engage an experienced and trustworthy property agent/agency to help you identify ideal properties, provide useful insights as well as help negotiate pricing & terms with the property owners. It's also important that you hire a conveyancing lawyer from the moment you identify the property that you intend to purchase. The lawyer will conduct the due diligence on your behalf as well as ensure that the transfer process goes smoothly while protecting you from any issues.

1. Identify your preferred property locations, size, and price range
2. View several properties and make comparisons
3. After identifying your ideal property, set up a meeting with the owner
4. During the meeting with the owner, inquire about the history of the property, exchange contact information, copies of national IDs, negotiate on pricing & payment terms, and ask for a copy of the title deed for search purposes.
5. Conduct an official search on the Ardhisasa platform or at the county land offices to confirm ownership. You may also ask your lawyer to get a certified copy of the property’s green card which contains all the original records of all transactions pertaining to the property. The information on the green card must tally with that on the title deed.
6. After ascertaining rightful ownership, then go ahead and obtain a RIM (Registry Index Map) from the Survey Of Kenya.
7. Revisit the property with your surveyor and ascertain the property location and beacons as per the RIM.
8. Ask the seller to provide land rates & land rent clearance certificates
9. The seller will also need to seek consent to transfer the property from the LCB (Lands Control Board) if the title is Freehold & National Lands Commission if the property is Leasehold.
10. Acquire the sale agreement from the seller’s lawyer & pay the agreed-upon deposit.
11. If the land has encumbrance rights e.g. a loan on it, the rights owner has to give transfer consent. If the land is registered under two parties with equal undivided shares; form 35 is filled by both owners & signed to give transfer consent
12. After the seller acquires the transfer consent and provides the land rates payment certificate, then you as the buyer are required to pay the seller the balance and acquire the original title deed, and transfer documents. Your lawyer should help with this process.
13. The government valuer then carries out stamp duty valuation
14. You as the buyer are required to pay the stamp duty fees to KRA; 4% for urban areas and 2% for rural areas.
15. With your lawyer's guidance, fill out an application form for the land to be registered & for a new certificate of title to be issued under you. The original title, transfer consent, official land search, stamp duty receipt, sale agreement, certified copies of KRA PIN, and National ID are surrendered to the land registrar for this to take place.
16. It should take a period of about 30 days to acquire the new title.
17. It is advisable to do a second search after about 2 weeks to ensure the new title is registered at the Ministry of Lands.