Ex-Receptionist Building Sh2.5bn Homes in Nairobi

The transition to entrepreneurship from full-time employment can be tough for any young adult – especially for those who join service straight from high school.

This was the case for Leah Wambui, the founder and CEO of Cheriez Properties, who started as a receptionist before jumping into the stormy world of business.

In an interview with popular YouTuber Wode Maya, Ms. Wambui narrated how she rose from the bottom to the top of the Kenyan real estate bench – making a name for herself as a trustworthy developer of quality residential houses.

Ms. Wambui said she grew up in an entrepreneurial family – her parents were businesspeople – and she really admired that.

“But there is one person I really admired throughout my life and that was my aunt. When my mum passed on when I was 16, she took me in,” she said.

The aunt was a distributor of various consumer goods and Ms. Wambui would frequently visit her shop from where she honed important business skills.

“After high school I was to go to campus but I dropped out because there were no resources and I got a job as a receptionist. That’s where I started.”

Wines and spirits

She later quit her job and, with capital from the auntie, started a wines and spirits outlet in Kiambu. She was 24 years old at that time.

“I joined many chamas and borrowed Sh100,000, added Sh40,000, and bought a car for Sh140,000,” Ms. Wambui said.

She used the car to start a distributorship business.

Thereafter, a real estate idea hit and Ms. Wambui started scouting for suitable land onto which to set up a dream project.

“I wanted some big land…. where I could put up nice family homes where kids can go out and play,” she said.

Ms. Wambui found five acres that were on sale in Kitengela.

“[The landowner] first dismissed me. He did not think that I was serious. He was selling five acres and I wanted three acres. I talked with him and it took too long.”

“I would pay him some money as we talked, and by the time we concluded the talks I finished buying the five acres,” she said.

Rude shock

Ms. Wambui and her husband sold their house, some of their shares and pooled together savings to start the project, which is now known as Royal Finesse.

They broke ground on November 13, 2015.

“We started building 10 houses. I thought that I’d manage to sell the houses within a very short time,” she said.

“I got into a rude shock! It became difficult to convince people that the project was viable.”

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In 2016, they did not even finish building the first 10 houses.

“The money got finished and we had not finished building, and we had not sold any houses. Stress checked in! I could not even pay my workers.”

“People kept saying ‘the houses are beautiful, but who is going to buy a Sh17 million house in Kitengela?’” she added.

Verge of giving up

Ms. Wambui went to London try and sell the houses. She moved to churches in London trying to convince people to buy her property.

“Of course, I came back without a single sale,” she said.

In September 2016 she had zero resources – no cash even to fuel her car – and was on the verge of giving up. Luckily, things suddenly changed.

“I got a client who deposited the first deposit of Sh8 million. After a day I got another client who paid a million and would pay a million every two days.

“By the end of the week, I got another one who paid Sh7.5 million. Before the end of that week, I had received over Sh16 million in deposits. I could not believe it.

“We went back full swing and I told the contractor, ‘Let’s get moving’. By Christmas of 2016 we had houses to give.

“Come January I told my contractor, ‘Excavate! We are doing more’. He said, ‘mama, how many houses?’ I said 28. He said, ‘What! we could not do 10 houses now you want us to do 28 – more than double?’

“I said, ‘Do it. Excavate.’ He said, ‘Do you have money?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Of course, we didn’t have money. I was operating by faith,” Ms. Wambui said.

The project took off, and the end product was 78 semi-detached all en-suite five-bedroom townhouses each with a detached servant quarter.

Royal Finesse has since sold out.

The developer later embarked on construction of Royal Gates Kitengela – a gated community of 78 four-bedroom townhouses with detached servant quarters.

The project is still ongoing with each unit going for Sh16 million.

At the end of the journey, Ms. Wambui will have built and sold a total of 156 townhouses valued at an estimated Sh2.58 billion.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges that Ms. Wambui faced during her first project was theft of building materials. She had to content with a syndicate of thuggery.

“I would ship tiles and they would bring trucks in the night to take out the tiles, and the architect – who I believed to be like the project manager – could collude with sub-contractors and inflate their invoices,” she said.

Cashflow was another major headache for the developer.

“It was our biggest problem [since] we did not take any bank loans,” she said.

Any regrets? “I don’t have any regrets,” Ms. Wambui concluded.

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