Sh120bn Aberdare Hills Golf Resort goes up for auction

Garam Investment Auctioneers will next week descend upon Aberdare Hills Golf Resort in Naivasha – auctioning off the multi-billion shilling property to the highest bidder.

On Monday, Garam Investment publicised the sale of the luxury property comprising a proposed golf resort, show houses and maisonettes sitting on 832.7 acres in Naivasha, about 5km off the Nairobi-Nakuru highway at Kenchic Manera Sunset Farm, next Thursday.

“Under instructions received from the chargee’s advocate, we shall sell by public auction (the property) on February 20, outside the main post office in Naivasha town,” Garam said.

The property primed for auction include parcels of land known as L. R. numbers 425/56 (370.4 acres) and 425/58 (462.3 acres).

The property, Galam said, was under construction with eight show houses, an office block, two maisonettes, a gate house (complete), generator room (complete), three dams (two complete), borehole (complete), masonry boundary wall, and internal roads.

It is registered in the name of Pritam Singh Panesar g/t Panda Development Company.

“In addition, there was a proposal to develop: 18-hole golf course, a club house, a five star hotel and villas,” Garam said in a newspaper advertisement.

Construction of the Aberdare Hills Golf Resort kicked off in early 2011, with Dr Pritam Singh Panesar – then CEO of Panda Development Company (the developer) – promising to lay down Kenya’s first USGA Championship 18-hole golf course at the development.

The facility was to occupy 1,700 acres out of which only 30 per cent would be built on while the rest would be left for wildlife, making it an ideal destination for tourists.

READ: Sh30bn Iluluwe Golf Estate unveiled in Athi River

The first phase of the project was to include the golf course, a club house, a 120-room five-star hotel, villas and townhouses, with prices ranging from Sh18 million to Sh40 million.

The investors valued the development at Sh120 billion.

But in 2018, Dr Panesar died. Prior to his death, the real estate tycoon had secured a loan with a local commercial bank against the property. According to the Business Daily, the arrears to the bank now stand at Sh1.2 billion – prompting the forthcoming auction.  

Aberdare Hills Golf Resort now joins a growing list of lofty properties that are going under the hammer as real estate developers face intense pressure from lenders amid a credit crunch that has denied many potential buyers a chance to acquire property.

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