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Real estate and property
Title due diligence, purchases and sales, leases and land disputes, with every risk checked before you commit.
Overview
Kenya's real estate market is one of the most active in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the most legally complex. Title fragmentation, leasehold conversions, sectional property registrations, and the transition to the National Land Information Management System mean that every transaction carries risk if legal due diligence is not properly conducted.
Clay & Associates Advocates advises buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, developers, and financiers across the full spectrum of real estate transactions and disputes. We conduct title searches, advise on encumbrances, prepare and negotiate transaction documents, and act in real estate disputes before the Environment and Land Court.
What we do
9 service lines. Choose one to see what it covers.
Residential & Commercial Property Transactions
We advise buyers and sellers in residential and commercial property transactions from offer to completion. Our work includes title due diligence, sale agreement drafting and negotiation, stamp duty advice, transfer documentation, and registration with the Lands Registry. We advise on leasehold conversions and extension of government leases.
Most matters cross two or three of these
Describe the situation in your own words. We will tell you what it involves, which services it touches and what it will cost, before you commit to anything.
Why clients instruct us for real estate work
Title diligence before commitment
Searches across Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado and the wider country, at published fixed fees.
Scale fees applied openly
Conveyancing follows the ARO scale and we tell you the number before you instruct.
The transaction and the dispute in one team
The advocates who handle your conveyance also run land disputes, so risk is spotted while it is still avoidable.
Institutional and individual work side by side
From a first home to commercial leasing portfolios, with the same standard of diligence.
Free tool
Property legal fees calculator
Buying or selling land, a house or an apartment in Kenya? See what your lawyer (advocate) must charge. The Advocates (Remuneration) Order sets a minimum fee that every advocate in Kenya has to follow; no advocate may charge less (paragraph 3).
Enter the property price to see the fee.
| What it is for | Rate | Fee |
|---|
What the fee covers
Paragraph 20(1): taking instructions, checking the title, reporting on it, preparing or approving the documents, completion in the advocate's town, getting consents and clearances by letter, registration and correspondence with you.
What you pay on top
Government and third-party costs are extra (paragraph 19): stamp duty, registration and search fees, valuation and similar costs. Paragraph 20(2) also excludes negotiating the deal, tracing old title documents, withholding tax work, stamp duty valuation and adjudication, land control consent, and extra work from special or changed circumstances.
How the fee is worked out
Sale or purchase (Schedule 1, First Scale), added band by band: 2% of the first KES 5 million (at least KES 35,000), 1.5% up to KES 100 million, 1.25% up to KES 250 million, 1% up to KES 1 billion, 0.1% above that. The same scale applies to the seller's and the buyer's lawyer, less one third where the seller's lawyer does not prepare the agreement (paragraph 18(a)). Bank loans (Second Scale): the bank's lawyer charges 2% of the first KES 2.5 million (at least KES 28,000), 1.75% up to KES 5 million, 1% up to KES 100 million, 0.75% up to KES 250 million, 0.15% up to KES 1 billion and 0.1% above; the borrower's lawyer charges half of that (paragraph 2(d)).
Source: The Advocates (Remuneration) Order, Kenya Law, Schedule 1 as amended by Legal Notice 35 of 2014. Checked 24 October 2026. This shows the minimum fee set by law, not a quote; leases, auctions and unusual transactions use other parts of the Order.
Real estate and property insights
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12 Sep 2026, 6 min readTell us about the property
You will get a clear view of what the matter involves and what it costs before you commit to anything.
- Your consultation fee is credited in full against your engagement fee if you instruct us within 14 days
- Scope, approach and fee confirmed in writing before work begins
- Our full fee schedule is published online
- Nextgen Mall, 5th Floor, Suite 6, Mombasa Road, Nairobi