Elijah Ntongai, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, has over four years of financial, business, and technology research and reporting experience, providing insights into Kenyan and global trends.

Kenya’s wealthiest individuals are steering away from luxury assets and doubling down on revenue-generating sectors such as food production and technology in response to a turbulent economic climate.

This is according to the newly released Knight Frank Wealth Report: Kenya Edition – Attitudes Survey 2025, which highlights a marked shift in investment priorities among High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs).

The report shows that Kenyan HNWIs are reducing exposure to residential and foreign assets.

Instead, they are favouring more liquid and productive domestic investments like Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), treasury bonds, money markets, and direct investments in agriculture, tech, and renewable energy.

This strategic repositioning follows a subdued growth year in 2024, where more than 60% of wealth managers reported an increase of less than 10% in HNWI numbers.

“This pivot in investment highlights the adaptability of HNWIs and their assessment of the country's strongest opportunities ahead. With the slowdown in 2024, particularly in sectors that have been key to wealth creation, such as construction and mining, dampening overall wealth creation, there has been a considerably rapid shift in HNWIs portfolios and priorities,” said Boniface Abudho, research analyst at Knight Frank.

According to the report, data centres and development land top the list of preferred investments heading into 2025 as they jointly account for over 28% of first-choice options.

Farmland, particularly for food production, also ranks highly, with 83% of farmland investors targeting agriculture.

Knight Frank also reported a dramatic shift in asset allocation. The share of wealth held in personal homes by HNWIs dropped sharply from 60% in 2023 to just over 20% in 2024.

The proportion of those owning four or more homes decreased from 37.5% to 22.2% within the same period.

Additionally, foreign homeownership is on the decline: only 10% of Kenyan HNWIs owned property abroad in 2024, down from 14% the previous year.

This reallocation of capital reflects a broader retreat from "lifestyle" investments. The number of HNWIs looking to buy another home now overwhelmingly prefer Kenya, with 66% naming it their top choice—up from 33% a year ago.

“In global terms, Kenyan returns remain sharply ahead of the world average. Rising uncertainty in global markets is pushing investors to re-anchor their capital at home,” noted Mark Dunford, CEO of Knight Frank Kenya.

While commercial real estate remains a core part of many HNWI portfolios, the appetite for it has diminished.

Half of the wealth managers surveyed said fewer than 10% of their clients plan to invest in this asset class in 2025.

Despite the cautious repositioning, nearly half of respondents (48%) expect a marginal increase in wealth in 2025, and 26% anticipate gains exceeding 10%.

According to Knight Frank, this reflects cautious optimism underpinned by a pragmatic, returns-oriented investment strategy.

As reported earlier on TUKO.co.ke, Kenya’s economic growth slowed to 4.7% in 2024 from 5.7% in 2023, primarily due to contractions in construction, mining, and quarrying, alongside a general slowdown in most industries.

Agriculture expanded by 4.6%, down from 6.6% supported by increased production of sugarcane, tea, and coffee but hindered by weaker maize and potato yields.

The services sector remained resilient with 6.0% growth, though lower than 2023’s 7.0%, driven by financial services, transport, real estate, ICT, and trade. Industrial growth fell sharply to 0.8% from 2.0% due to declines in construction and extractive industries.

Source: TUKO.co.ke