Bedsitter, single room, DSQ, maisonette: Kenyan property terms explained

Kenyan property listings have their own vocabulary. If you're new to house hunting here — or coming home from the diaspora — this glossary will help you read listings correctly.

Types of homes

• Single room — one room, usually with a shared toilet and bathroom in the compound. The most affordable option.
• Bedsitter — one room with a small kitchen area and its own bathroom. A step up from a single room.
• Studio — an open-plan unit where the living, sleeping and kitchen areas share one space, typically in newer buildings with a separate bathroom.
• 1, 2, 3 bedroom — apartments or houses with separate bedrooms plus a living room and kitchen.
• Maisonette — a house on two floors, often in a gated estate, with bedrooms upstairs.
• Bungalow — a single-storey house.
• Townhouse — one of a row or group of similar houses, usually in a gated compound with shared security.
• DSQ / SQ — domestic servant quarters: a small separate unit in the compound, sometimes rented out on its own.

Features you'll see in listings

• En-suite / all en-suite — the bedroom has its own bathroom; "all en-suite" means every bedroom does.
• Master en-suite — only the main bedroom has its own bathroom.
• Token meter — prepaid electricity; you buy tokens as you go.
• Borehole — the building has its own water source, a big plus where county water is irregular.
• Backup generator — power for lifts, lights and water pumps during blackouts.
• Gated community — an estate with a controlled entrance and shared security.
• Service charge — a monthly fee for shared costs like security, cleaning and garbage collection.

Land and ownership terms

• Freehold — ownership without a time limit.
• Leasehold — ownership for a fixed term (for example 99 years), usually with annual land rent.
• Title deed — the document showing registered ownership of land.
• Share certificate / allotment letter — used in some land-buying companies and developments before individual titles are issued. Understand exactly what you are buying and when a title will be issued.
• Official search — a check at the land registry showing the owner and any charges on the land. See buying land safely.
• Beacons — markers placed by a surveyor at the corners of a plot.
• 1/8 acre (50 × 100) — a common plot size in Kenya, roughly 50 by 100 feet.

Now you speak the language: search bedsitters, apartments, houses and land in all 47 counties.