Property development and management firm, Hass Consult has today released the results of the Hass Property Index for quarter 2 of 2012. The Hass Property Index is a measure of how housing prices and rents are moving. The report has revealed that there is an ongoing hike in rent prices against a backdrop of stable house prices on the market.

The rise in asking rental prices is now running at 10 times the rate that there was during the 2010 and 2011, a period Hass Consult says rent was almost static. In the period from September 2009 and September 2011 the asking price for rent rose by just 1.5% in total. The report says that rising property costs, inflation and high interest rates have led to a sharp increase in rent witnessed in three successive quarters.

The report says that for the period from September 2011, asking rent for all  property types have risen by 7.9% with 6.6% of that increase witnessed in the first half of 2012.  The sharpest rises are happening in apartment rents, which have risen to 10.33% since the climb in rents began at the end of September last year and 8.1% since the beginning of 2012.

"This surge in rental prices comes as landlords cover higher finance and other costs, and at a time when there is an increased volume of people seeking the same pool of rental properties, as potential home owners hold off from purchasing, " said Ms. Farhana Hassanali, Property Development Manager at HassConsult.

Following the decision by Central Bank of Kenya's Monetary Policy Committee to cut its meetings once every two months, HassConsult has urged the committee to speed up the fall of interest rates to a more normal and viable level by global standards.