HF sweetens sale offer for Nairobi hotel after investors snub bid

A section of Hotel Lazinos in Nairobi West. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Mortgage lender Housing Finance Group (HF) #ticker:HFCK has sweetened an offer to sell Hotel Lazinos, a popular bar and restaurant with accommodation facilities in Nairobi West, after successive bids failed to draw the interest of investors.

HF on Wednesday cut the reserve price of the property by Sh10 million in a bid to attract buyers, signalling the hotel had either attracted lower offers from potential buyers or failed to draw interest.

“The selling price is (now) Sh240 million,” said HF in an advertisement placed on local dailies announcing the sale.

In March 2019, the hotel was put up for auction for the second time following a similar plan in 2016 over debt.

At the time, the auctioneer said the business had an estimated rental income of Sh3.5 million a month.

A few months later, in May 2019, HF and Lazinos owner David Njuguna agreed to sell the hotel under a private treaty without recourse to an auction process. The reserve price was set at Sh250 million.

The facility located on Gandhi Avenue off Lang’ata Road, has been popular with Nairobi West revellers.

The prime commercial property has four floors with two wings and 43 self-contained guestrooms. It also has conference halls, shops, laundry and salon units.

Hotel Lazinos is registered under Turitu Service Station and sits on 0.1791 acres of land.

The sale of the property comes as the number of properties going under the hammer crippled by mounting debt has risen sharply in recent months.

But auctioneers are finding it difficult to get buyers amid a glut on the back of a slowdown in the economy, especially in the real estate business.