Hello & Karibu. My name is Sylvia Sudoi & I am the team leader here at The Diaspora Access.
THE SEED
Sometime around 2010, I received a call from a good friend living in the USA. She wanted to purchase an apartment in Nairobi. My assignment was to go to the site and take pictures. She needed to ascertain that the project existed and that the particulars were as had been advertised. I happily helped out with this and a few more errands around the purchase.
In 2011, as I was visiting with family in the USA, I got the chance to meet a lot of Kenyans living there. As we talked about their experiences living abroad, there was a common thread that run through most of our conversations. ‘I am here to work/go to school, but my plans are to return home someday’, they said. This was the sense I got from them, whether they had been there for a year or for decades. Because of their conviction (especially those who had been away for long), I could not help but wonder why they had not made the return home a reality. Some had left the country immediately after high school and having lived away all their adult lives they felt like they would not know where to start. ‘I’ve no property that I can call my own back home and returning to start from scratch is daunting’. It was understandable that these were their responses. It is indeed difficult to be fully engaged in one country and stay actively investing in another.
What was inspiring however was that despite the challenges of staying connected, some had gone to great lengths to invest back home. They used whatever resources were at their disposal (family members, friends and acquaintances) to acquire land here…………… build a house there. They spent a lot of money shuttling back and forth to oversee their projects. The process, albeit frustrating at times, was always worth it for them.
When I returned home, I had no doubt in my mind that there was a great need and an opportunity to make this process less gruesome and more pleasant. The seeds of serving the Kenyan Diaspora had been sown. It was time to begin piecing together the solution.
THE BEGINNINGS
In 2012, my Nairobi apartment buying friend became our first client (and remains a loyal customer to date). She trusted us with her properties in Kenya which we manage on her behalf.
As time went by, we increased our offerings to include project management and have had the privilege of helping our clients build rental apartments, homes and set up offices, some of which we have showcased here.
For some of our clients the value has been in simply having a conversation to get a feel of the market and they have enjoyed the opportunity to bounce ideas off of a trusted and knowledgeable partner. Some sent us to pay their land rents and rates and as more and more of their needs came to the fore, we formulated an increasingly comprehensive list of services.
To enable us to deliver on our promise we work with talented professionals led by myself & Antony Mbithi. We both bring to the table a combined 20 years of Real Estate experience with relevant academic backgrounds and membership in professional bodies among them the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya, the Estate Agents Board and the Valuers Registration board.
THE FUTURE
We are eternally grateful to our founding clients in the USA and those we have gone ahead to serve in Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The varied nature of their needs keeps us on toes as we continue to refine our offerings in order to serve better. Their feedback has been valuable and validating.
Our commitment is to continue to be that trusted ‘go between’ for Kenyans and eventually Africans across the globe who seek to stay connected to their home through investments.
Please come along on this journey with us by sharing your thoughts and topics of interest in the comments section. Join our community by subscribing to our newsletter to hear from us on a regular basis. We will be sharing stories and valuable information about the services we offer and the Kenyan real estate market. If you know someone who would benefit from this information……..‘sharing is caring!’
