When buying a home, there are a number of factors to consider. The first thing that comes to mind is the cost. How much money do you need to purchase a house? Are you going to buy it with a lump sum or are you going to take a mortgage? How much will it cost to furnish the home?

All these factors are critical when it comes to making such decisions. They help potential home-owners to weigh their options before making long-term commitments. But once the financial aspects of home ownership are settled, an equally important factor has to be considered; location.

William Dillard, a real estate developer, gained fame and fortune after realizing that the success of any business depended on where the building of operations was located. As the Chairman and founder of Dillard’s Incorporated, he stated that location was the first thing to consider before putting up any structure. He also noted that building sites determined the price of housing.

Whether it’s for business or residence, location is always one of the top deal-breakers when it comes to building. You have to think about how close your potential home is to a shopping center. If you have children, you have to think about the distance between the house and their school.

Take Stima Investments for instance. The co-operative society just received a KES 395 million development loan from Shelter Afrique. Stima plans to use the money to put up 156 housing units along Mombasa Road.

For anyone working within the Central Business District (CBD) this may seem like an opportunity worth exploiting. Owning a home only a few minutes’ drive from your place of work saves time and money. The cost of fuel should be significantly less for a person living there as opposed to someone living in Kajiado, Ongata Rongai, or Mars while we are at it.

Despite the promise of convenience, one has to consider the fact that a place like Mombasa Road is prone to traffic jams. Assuming you own a vehicle, fuel can still be wasted in a traffic jam if you fail to switch off your engine every once in a while.

Worse still is the cost of housing in a strategic location like Mombasa Road. Rent is often higher in prime locales than it is in the more developmentally deprived parts of the country. A house in Lavington will obviously cost more than one in the less affluent parts of West Pokot. A house built near a dump site will cost less than one in the leafy surburbs.

So when you opt for a house in a convenient location, remember that your landlord knows about the advantages. Expect to pay more than you would for a home in a rural part of the country. Perhaps it is true of owning a house as it is of everything else, "location, location, location."