KES 7.9 million, or about $60,500. That is our working figure for a plain three-bedroom bungalow of 115 square metres, with consultants and a contingency included, and with the land and several smaller bills left out. The cost of building a 3 bedroom house in Kenya depends on your plan, your county and your finish, so treat the figure as a starting point for a conversation with a quantity surveyor. We show the working so you can swap in your own numbers.
Most online guides give a wide range and no source. Ours is built from three published figures and some arithmetic, and we say where the arithmetic is ours.
The rate per square metre
The most recent rates we could find come from the Architectural Association of Kenya. Business Daily reported in December 2025 that a bungalow cost KES 54,730 per square metre and a maisonette KES 59,868, after rises of about 12% in the ten months to October 2025. A luxurious maisonette stood at KES 97,730.
Those rates are about a year old, and 2026 has been a rough year for building prices. The KNBS Construction Input Price Indices for the second quarter of 2026 put the Building Cost Index at 126.06, up from 121.29 in the third quarter of 2025. That is a rise of 3.9%.
Applying that 3.9% to the association's rates is our own estimate. Neither body publishes these results:
- Bungalow: about KES 56,900 per square metre
- Maisonette: about KES 62,200 per square metre
- Luxurious maisonette: about KES 101,600 per square metre
The KNBS index tracks what builders pay for inputs. It does not track what contractors charge, so a real quote can move faster or slower. We also could not tell from the report whether the association's rates include VAT, external works or a contractor's site costs. Ask before you compare any quote with them.
How big is a three-bedroom house?
There is no standard size, and that matters more than most people expect. A published plan for a concise three-bedroom bungalow has a plinth area of 115 square metres on a 50 by 100 foot plot. A gated-estate unit reached by Kenyatta Road, off Thika Road, is listed at 104. Another nearby listing gives 138 in one place and 140 in another.
At our estimated rates, construction alone comes to:
- 104 square metre bungalow: about KES 5.9 million
- 115 square metre bungalow: about KES 6.5 million
- 140 square metre bungalow: about KES 8.0 million
- 140 square metre maisonette: about KES 8.7 million
- 140 square metre luxurious maisonette: about KES 14.2 million
Thirty-six extra square metres add around KES 2 million. Before you argue with a contractor over the price of tiles, look hard at the floor plan.
Cost of building a 3 bedroom house in Kenya: a worked budget
Here is the 115 square metre bungalow from the top of this article, line by line, with dollar figures at the Central Bank of Kenya's indicative rate of KES 129.95 on 30 October 2026.
- Construction at KES 56,900 per square metre: KES 6,543,500.
- Architect at 6%: KES 392,610. A Nairobi architect gave Kenyans.co.ke that figure in 2023, and a 2026 Huduma Global guide gives a range of 6% to 10%.
- Structural engineer at 4%: KES 261,740. The same Kenyans.co.ke report cites Legal Notice 20 of 2022 for 3.5% to 4.5%, and we took a rate near the middle.
- NEMA environmental impact assessment, if your project needs one: KES 10,000. The fee is 0.1% of project cost with a KES 10,000 minimum, so a project this size pays the minimum.
- Contingency at 10%: KES 654,350. This is our judgement and no published rate. Adjust it to how much you trust your drawings.
Total: KES 7,862,200, or about $60,500.
Several real costs are missing because we could not pin them down from a source we trust:
- County approval fees. Huduma Global's range runs from KES 10,000 to KES 500,000 or more, with the top end meant for large commercial work. Ask your county for its current schedule.
- Quantity surveyor fees. We found no published percentage, so get a quote.
- Survey, water, sewer and power connections, a septic tank or borehole if the plot needs one, and a perimeter wall.
Topography and soil can also change the foundation bill. On a long-distance build, a good bill of quantities is where these items stop being surprises.
The NCA levy question
You will see older and current guides tell you to budget 0.5% of the contract for the National Construction Authority. On KES 6.5 million that is about KES 33,000, so the money is small, but the confusion is worth clearing up.
The levy was scrapped in 2017, and in 2022 the authority's executive director told Business Daily it had not been reinstated. The NCA's own project registration page now says registration is "currently free of charge" and mentions no levy. Even so, the Huduma Global guide, dated February 2026, still lists 0.5%.
We left it out of the budget. If anyone asks you for it, ask for the legal notice and a receipt from the authority itself. We could not find a notice bringing it back, which is different from proving there is none, so get the answer from the NCA in writing.
What the page does make plain is that free does not mean optional. It says private projects must be registered "without exceptions", that the developer is responsible, and that the application is due within 30 days of awarding the contract. It also asks for approved drawings, a signed bill of quantities summary and the developer's KRA PIN.
Where the 2026 price pressure sits
The second quarter was the jump. The overall input index rose 5.73%, which Business Daily called the largest rise since late 2022. In the building index, KNBS recorded these quarterly moves:
- Fuel: up 33.67%
- Transport: up 14.18%
- Paints: up 8.43%
- Cement and lime: up 6.97%
- Ballast: up 6.09%
- Steel and reinforced bars: up 2.73%
- Masons and foremen: up 3.15%
Steel looks mild there until you read the level. Against a base of 100 in late 2019, steel sits at 178.85 while the whole building index sits at 126.06. Timber, at 99.32, is still below where it started. Cement and steel together carry about a quarter of the weight in the KNBS building basket, so they deserve the most attention in any quote.
On a KES 6.5 million job, one quarter's 5.25% move in the building index would come to roughly KES 340,000 if a contractor passed all of it on. Ask whether your contract price is fixed or can rise with material costs, and for which materials.
The regional picture is older, and it surprised us a little. Figures that Construction Kenya links to the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya handbook show a standard bungalow about 4% dearer at the Coast than in Nairobi and Central, and about 2% dearer in Western and Nyanza. A middle-class maisonette in Western and Nyanza comes out about 11% above Nairobi. Building upcountry is not automatically cheaper, at least on these rates.
Build or buy?
We cannot settle this one for you. The 140 square metre listing above asks KES 9.5 million with land included, while our estimate is about KES 8 million for construction alone on the same floor area, before consultants or a plot. That is one listing with no date on the price, and an asking price rather than a sale price. It may also be overpriced, badly built or perfectly fair, and we have not checked its title or its finish.
The comparison is still worth running with your own numbers. Our online pricing index shows median asking prices by area with the listing count beside each one, and marks anything under three listings as directional only. Ask bRRAIn, our property research assistant, about the area you have in mind. KNBS had not listed a third-quarter index when we checked on 2 November 2026, so we do not yet know whether the second-quarter jump held.
Whichever way you go, check the title before you pour anything, and get the quantity surveyor's figure before you send the first instalment. A signed bill of quantities at your own plot's size will replace every estimate on this page.
Sources: KNBS Construction Input Price Indices, second quarter 2026. Business Daily, 11 December 2025. Business Daily, 20 July 2026. Business Daily, 8 June 2022. National Construction Authority, project registration. Kenyans.co.ke, 10 January 2023. The Star, 2 June 2022. Huduma Global, 20 February 2026. Construction Kenya, updated 19 October 2025. Bizna Kenya plan. Commercial Property Kenya listings: 104 square metres, 138 to 140 square metres. Central Bank of Kenya. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.