Conveyancing in Kenya: What a Property Lawyer Does and What It Costs

What Conveyancing Actually Covers

Conveyancing is the legal transfer of property ownership from one person to another. In Kenya it is governed by the Land Registration Act, the Land Act, and various subsidiary legislation. A conveyancing lawyer — also called a conveyancer — handles each of the following steps on your behalf.

• Title deed search at the Lands Registry. Before anything else, your lawyer confirms that the person selling you the property is actually the registered owner. This sounds obvious. It is not always true.
• Encumbrance check. The search also reveals whether there is a charge (loan secured against the property), a caution, a caveat, or a court order registered on the title. Any of these can prevent transfer or come back to haunt you after purchase.
• Drafting the Sale Agreement. This is the binding contract between buyer and seller. It sets out the purchase price, the deposit paid, the completion date, and what happens if either party defaults.
• Land Control Board consent. For agricultural land, the Board must approve the transfer. The Board meets monthly, and both buyer and seller may be required to attend.
• Stamp duty filing and payment. Stamp duty is paid to KRA via iTax before registration can proceed. Your lawyer prepares the documents and handles the filing.
• Registration of the transfer at the Lands Registry. Once stamp duty is paid and all documents are in order, the transfer is lodged at the relevant registry and the title deed is processed in the buyer's name.
• Handing over the title deed. The final step — you receive a clean title deed in your name, confirming your ownership of the property.

Why You Need Your Own Lawyer

This is the point that catches out a significant number of first-time buyers in Kenya. The vendor's lawyer works for the vendor. Their job is to protect the seller's interests, not yours. They drafted a sale agreement that suits their client. They are not going to flag a problem with the title on your behalf.

A buyer's lawyer does things the vendor's lawyer will not:

• Reviews the sale agreement line by line and negotiates terms in your favour — completion dates, deposit protection if the deal falls through, and what happens if the seller cannot produce a clean title.
• Commissions the title search independently, rather than relying on documents provided by the seller.
• Flags encumbrances the vendor did not mention or assumed would not matter.
• Confirms that the title type — freehold or leasehold — matches what you agreed to buy, and that the plot size on the register matches what you were shown on the ground.
• Advises you on whether to proceed if the search reveals complications.

Some sellers will suggest you use the same lawyer to save time and reduce costs. This is not in your interest. The saving in legal fees will not cover the cost of discovering post-purchase that a caution was registered on the title three years ago.

Conveyancing Fees in Kenya (2026)

Legal fees for conveyancing in Kenya are set by the Kenya Law Society (KLS) scale, though in practice many lawyers negotiate. The scale works as follows:

• 1.25% of the purchase price on the first KES 5 million
• 0.75% on anything above KES 5 million
• Minimum fee: KES 35,000–50,000 (most lawyers will not take a conveyancing matter below this floor)

For a KES 6 million property, the LSK scale fee works out as: (1.25% × KES 5M) + (0.75% × KES 1M) = KES 62,500 + KES 7,500 = KES 70,000.

These fees are for your lawyer. The vendor's lawyer charges the seller a similar amount for their side of the transaction, though in some deals a portion of the vendor's legal costs is passed across as a disbursement and factored into the overall negotiation. In practice, a buyer expecting to spend KES 60,000–80,000 in legal fees on a KES 6 million property is in the right range. The scale is a starting point — negotiate if you have reason to.

Stamp Duty: The Bigger Cost

Stamp duty is paid separately from legal fees and is calculated on the purchase price of the property:

• Urban/developed property: 4% of the purchase price
• Rural/agricultural land: 2% of the purchase price

Stamp duty is paid to KRA via iTax (eCitizen → KRA → stamp duty). Your lawyer will handle the filing, but the money comes from you and must be paid before the Lands Registry will register the transfer. There is no negotiating stamp duty — it is a government charge.

On a KES 6 million Nairobi apartment: KES 240,000 in stamp duty, due before completion.

Full Cost Breakdown: KES 6 Million Nairobi Apartment

This is on top of the KES 6 million purchase price. Budget for roughly 5.5–6.5% of the property price in transaction costs on an urban property purchase in Kenya. On rural land with 2% stamp duty, this drops to around 3.5–4.5%.

How Long Does Conveyancing Take?

The timeline depends heavily on the type of property and who is selling.

• Straightforward freehold transfer: 30–60 days from signing the sale agreement. This assumes no complications at the registry and both parties moving promptly.
• Leasehold requiring head lessor consent: 60–90 days. The head lessor (often a county government or a private landlord under a master lease) must approve the transfer before registration can proceed.
• Government or public institution as seller: 3–6 months is common. Government bodies have internal approval processes that do not move quickly.
• Agricultural land (Land Control Board consent): Add 30–45 days for the consent hearing. The Board meets once a month, so if you miss one sitting, you wait for the next.

These are honest estimates, not best-case scenarios. If the registry in question has a backlog — which some do — add time. Your lawyer should be able to give you a realistic timeline based on the specific registry and property type once they have seen the documents.

The Title Search: Do This Before Paying Any Deposit

A title search is conducted at the relevant Lands Registry — the Nairobi registry for Nairobi properties, the Mombasa registry for the coast, and regional registries elsewhere. The official fee is KES 500. The search reveals:

• The current registered owner's name
• Any charges (loans secured against the property)
• Caution notices (a third party has registered a claim)
• Caveats (similar to a caution; prevents dealings on the property)
• Court orders affecting the title

Your lawyer should conduct this search before you sign the sale agreement or pay a deposit. Not after. If the search reveals a problem — a caution from an unpaid supplier, a charge from a bank loan the seller has not disclosed — you want to know before your money is on the table.

Red Flags That Should Stop a Deal

Not every property purchase should proceed. These are the situations your conveyancing lawyer should flag, and that you should take seriously:

• The title search shows a different registered owner. The person you are buying from is not the owner on record. This is a fundamental problem with no quick fix.
• A caution is registered on the title. Transfer cannot proceed until the caution is removed. The caution holder must agree, and sometimes they will not without a payment or a court order. This can kill a deal or drag it out indefinitely.
• Pending court cases involving the property. Even if they do not show on the registry yet, your lawyer should ask directly and the seller should disclose. A court case can freeze the property mid-transfer.
• The title shows a different plot size than what you are buying. A 0.1-acre plot advertised as 0.15 acres is either a measurement error or something worse. Your lawyer can arrange a survey to confirm.
• The seller insists you use their lawyer only and share. This is not a cost-saving measure in your favour. Walk away or insist on your own representation.

If You Are Buying with a Mortgage

When a bank is financing part of the purchase, a second layer of conveyancing is added. The bank's lawyer registers the charge — the security interest that gives the bank a claim over the property until you repay the loan. You pay the bank's legal fees for this, typically 1–1.5% of the loan amount.

On a KES 4 million mortgage: add KES 40,000–60,000 in bank legal fees on top of the costs above.

You still need your own lawyer to review the sale agreement. The bank's lawyer is acting for the bank. Their job is to make sure the bank's security is properly registered, not to protect your interests as the buyer of the underlying property.

Bottom Line

Conveyancing costs on a KES 6 million Nairobi property will run KES 330,000–380,000 on top of the purchase price. The dominant cost is stamp duty at 4% — unavoidable, non-negotiable, due before you can register. Legal fees are the second biggest cost and have some room to negotiate.

Budget for roughly 5.5–6.5% of the purchase price in transaction costs on urban property. Factor this in before you agree on a price, not after.

Engage your own lawyer before you sign anything. The title search costs KES 500 and takes a few days. If it comes back clean, proceed with confidence. If it reveals a problem, you found out before you handed over a deposit. That is exactly the sequence conveyancing is designed to create — and the only way it works is if your lawyer is acting for you, not the person selling.