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Building a house at diani beach

Last activity 03 October 2022 by graycally

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tamba lamba

Hello dear people,

I want to find a plot and build a house for myself somewhere near the ocean. Maybe 80-100 sq.m. made of bamboo(if it's an option otherwise wood) and some stone/brick parts. I would like if it could be completely self-sufficient in terms of electricity and water. Has someone done something similar? How doable is it? How much would it approximately cost?

Thanks in advance

Wendy Rahim

@tamba lamba hey my name is Wendy ***

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JL Alexander
@tamba lamba
Hi Tamba Lamba,
Buying a plot in Diani can be an expensive thing, the plots on beach 1 are extremely expensive, beach 2 more reasonable
As a foreigner you can only buy lease hold plots.
When you buy a plot, you need to check that there is a bore hole for house water. The borehole water in Diani is brackish, you will need to buy drinking water.
You will have to create a septic tank.
On building a house with wood, you will face a great challenge as wood eating beetles are numerous and very efficient.
A makuti roof, made with wood and palm leaves, has to be rebuilt every 6 years.
Only the wood coming rom the mangrove is not eaten by the larvae as it is saturated with salt
Longonot62

<<As a foreigner you can only buy lease hold plots.>>


Not only that, the plot must be for residential use.


I'd avoid Bamboo as it will be eaten by insects and isn't particularly secure for you.  Wood, you can have treated, but if not done properly, it will also be eaten.  Building is very costly drilling a borehole (if feasible) is also costly.  Unfortunately, I cant put a figure on it as it is some years ago when. we substantially extended our house.  We built with cement free interlocking blocks, which saved some cost, but we ended up spending several million on it.


If you want solar, the best place for it is on the roof, so give careful thought about the roof construction as you don't want to be removing the solar panels to replace the roof unnecessarily

graycally

@tamba lamba Hey Hi Tamba I know someone who displayed a bamboo house in one of the groups that am in I will ask.

About the land it will depend on location diani I have a few freinds at the coast I will ask ten let you know.Wishing you the best with this will get back to you as soon as I can it's an interesting venture

Regards

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