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Where super-rich are investing after snubbing real estate
Knight Frank Kenya CEO Mark Dunford addressing journalists during the Wealth Report 2025 – Kenyan 2nd Edition launch event at Capital Club in Nairobi on May 13, 2025.
Kenya’s super-rich are cutting their exposure in the property sector and directing billions into money market funds, treasury bonds and real estate investment trusts (Reits) as they seek high returns and liquid assets.
Knight Frank’s latest wealth and investments report shows that the rich with a net worth of at least Sh130 million ($1 million) are not putting cash in residential properties for income and have slowed down on direct investments in office blocks and malls amid a glut.
They are looking at investments generating stable income streams and assets that are easier to exit while preserving wealth for future generations.
The stock market offered investors the highest returns in the first half of the year, ahead of fixed income assets and property, as a rally led by bank shares boosted investor wealth at the bourse.
The billionaires are keen on passive investments like money market funds, bonds and Reits, which are publicly listed real estate companies that invest in physical property, typically office real estate.
Reits make it possible for institutions and retail investors to invest in commercial real estate and receive a consistent income stream, without being landlords in an investment that is easily traded.
This marks a shift from previous trends where millions packed a huge chunk of their shares in residential homes and office blocks for rent.
“The overall decline in wealth allocation towards residential property over recent years suggests a broader strategic shift towards diversified, income-generating and more liquid investments,” says Knight Frank.
“Investors are increasingly prioritising assets that generate stable income streams, preserve capital and offer easier market exit opportunities. HNWIs [high-net-worth investors] retain residential properties for private use rather than income generation.”
Looking forward, Knight Frank reckons that Kenya’s super-rich are eyeing farm lands and data centres as emerging investment opportunities.
Data centres are the main infrastructure powering artificial intelligence (AI) by providing the high computing power, specialised computer hardware and the large storage needed to train and deploy complex language models.
There is a shortage of heavy-duty data centres needed to crunch the masses of data required to train large language models and run the AI-powered applications.
“Data centres emerged as one of the most attractive investment opportunities in 2026,” said Knight Frank.
“Rising expansion of the digital economy, increasing cloud adoption and growing demand for artificial intelligence and data storage infrastructure are driving interest in the sector.”
The rich are also aggressively buying farm land, with tycoons viewing the investment as a hedge against inflation, a store of wealth, and a vehicle for long-term capital appreciation, says the wealth report.
They are targeting satellite towns that are redefining Kenya’s real estate, which is shifting growth from prime suburbs to peri-urban centres due to affordability and availability of land on the back of improved infrastructure.
“Many investors are also acquiring large tracts of land in satellite towns and emerging growth corridors, anticipating future value appreciation driven by infrastructure development, urban expansion, and population growth,” says Knight Frank.
“Beyond its investment appeal, agricultural land serves as a generational asset that can be passed down through families while also providing collateral for future financing opportunities.”
Treasury bonds issued in the six months offered investors annual returns of between 12 percent and 14.2 percent, before withholding taxes of 10 to 15 percent on the interest.
Investors in the shorter Treasury bills earned between 7.4 percent and 9.2 percent in annualised interest as rates remained low despite the rise in inflation in the second quarter of the year, on costly fuel following the Iran war.
Investors opting to keep cash in fixed deposit accounts in banks saw the return fall to 6.8 percent in May 2026 from 7.03 percent in December 2025, as the Central Bank of Kenya lowered the base rate to 8.75 percent from nine percent in December.
In the property sector, rental and sales prices were in the single digits of up to 5.1 percent in the period as demand fell due to challenging economic conditions.
Shilling-denominated money market funds that carry the bulk of unit trust assets were offering annual returns of between 5.2 and 13.8 percent at the end of June.
This left the equities market unchallenged as the top-performing asset class, with a return of 27.8 percent in the six months, buoyed by gains in banking stocks and Safaricom.
But the majority of the super-rich captured in the Knight Frank report did not mention equities and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) as their preferred investment home.
