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Milliam Murigi  @millymur1

Who are Luxe Homes?

Luxe Homes is a Kenyan based real estate developer that aims to create luxurious homes that enrich people’s lives.

Our flagship project is Crimson Bay, a gated estate comprising of 12 luxurious flat roof villas, four bedrooms all ensuite with a domestic servant quarter and an extra room at the top.

The project is located along the Eastern bypass, inside varsity ville gated estate 500 meters from Thika road superhighway.

Why did you settle on the luxurious homes segment?

The idea of starting Luxe Homes was born from the urge of redefining luxury by sculpting perfect luxurious villas designed with uncompromising, affordable designs.

What differentiates luxurious properties from the rest?

The main difference is the fact that you own a dream house in a dreamland. Luxurious properties are ideally and conveniently located to ensure that all amenities are available.

Such houses are less liquid thus more volatile. Apart from that, one gets to live with like-minded and same class community.

Luxury market is insulated and protected from economic fluctuations, stock market swings, buying and selling decisions as compared to other markets.

This makes it a stable avenue for investment in real estate. The luxury market is characterised by a forerunner principle, it predicts the future and does not always play the same set of rules as the other market segments.

The luxury market recovers and bounces back faster in times of economic crisis and catastrophes.

What are some of the changes that the luxury market is experiencing?

Of late, we have seen a major shift from high-end locations to more affordable areas and yet maintaining the luxury brand.

The luxury marketing is also adopting more professional strategies of creating brand awareness, marketing, and selling.

What is the real estate outlook for luxury homes in the coming years?

We expect that in future financial institutions will be more involved in facilitating the luxury homes business.

Developers will also be building bigger estates with all amenities and infrastructure within the estate to make them more luxurious.

Luxury homes will be among the big five agendas, as one will be required to work in the comfort of a home.

What are the do’s and don’t’s for one to break into the luxury market?

Luxury markets are difficult to break into for newer brands, but offer so much opportunity that those who can withstand the risk can turn extraordinary profits.

To ensure that you break into this market you need not to compete on price instead you should focus on demonstrating the value of your product instead of competing on price. Apart from that you need also to focus on the exclusivity factor.

Although quality is one big reason consumers choose luxury products, they also desire the exclusivity factor.

They want something that not just anyone has. Don’t be afraid to provide a service that only a few can afford, because not everyone is your audience anyway.

Finally, you need to use the right marketing channels. Building a luxury brand is unique in that it’s not all about getting as many sales as possible.

It’s just as important to develop your brand’s image so consumers associate it with quality and exclusivity, and are open to paying more. 

Covid-19 has had a major impact on the housing sector, what are some of the measures you put in place to ensure that the company is still operational?

We have been giving special offers on price, reducing the amount paid per installments by our clients, slowing down on delivery of materials at site and extending the project delivery dates.

This we have achieved by ensuring constant communication and agreements with our clients.

We majored on online marketing as physical interactions had been banned as a way to curb the spread of Covid-19.

What are some of the recovery measures you have adopted?

Vibrant online marketing, which include boosting our social media presence. We are also creating a voice for our brand to infuse personality into our communications.

After this pandemic is over, we intend to do activations with major corporates and meeting our prospects one-on-one.

We are working on building a network and enlarging our database by getting referrals and interacting with people who can give us leads.

Being our first project, we are doing our best to deliver the promised quality so that we get referrals from the existing clients.

We are also working on having a reserve account to fund the project just in-case a catastrophe like Covid-19 strikes again.