You as the potential buyer are able to explore a range of options before settling on your house. Shopping around allows you to see the different designs, quality of finishing and so on before settling on a house to buy.

You also don’t have the challenges encountered in getting approvals for the construction of your home. These include architectural and structural plans approvals and the environmental approvals which you need before embarking on building your house.

The issue of con men that has recently been in the spotlight due to sale of grabbed land is eliminated. A relevant search at the lands registry is always part of the buying process reducing the risk of buying into cons.

Completed properties also sit on well serviced areas in terms of amenities such as electricity, water connections, waste/sewer collection and so forth.

You also do not require any special knowledge on construction, insurance, permits, licensing and so forth when buying a ready built house. All these are taken care of by the respective specialists.
The low side to buying a ready built house

You take what you get. There is little opportunity to ‘customize’ or personalise your house.

The cost. It is always significantly higher to pay for the ready built house than constructing your own. Houses put up at, say, sh. 1,000,000 may sell for sh. 5,000,000 or more. You pay for all the construction costs, labour, the cost of installing the amenities and of course, the developer needs to make a little profit…

Mortgage: buying a ready built house repayments are also for a longer term, meaning that you pay more in the longer term.
Why buying a ready built house is gaining popularity in Kenya

The quality of the finished houses is good especially in the urban areas. Involvement of the construction professionals ensures good quality is attained.

Financing options are becoming more available, with more people applying for and obtaining mortgages.

The common home buyer is too busy to shop around for a land to build on, leave alone supervising their houses’ construction. Buying a ready built house is most convenient for such persons.

source: http://buildingkenya.com