An apartment is easy to point out in a building. Its ownership is more complicated.
The apartment sits within a larger parcel, depends on the structure around it and shares entrances, services and other spaces with neighbouring units. A workable ownership system must therefore identify the private space while also accounting for the land and building elements that everyone uses together.
Kenya’s Sectional Properties Act, 2020 and the Sectional Properties Regulations, 2021 provide that system. They allow a building to be divided into separately registered units, with each unit carrying a proportionate share in the common property.
For a buyer, this means the apartment can have its own register and certificate of title or lease. For a developer, it creates a structured route from an approved building plan and completed development to registrable units. For the surveyor, it requires the physical building, the parcel and the sectional plan to agree.
Why did Kenya need sectional titles?
Before the current framework, many apartment and office developments were sold through long-term subleases tied to one parent, or “mother”, title. Other schemes relied on shares in a management company to connect each buyer to a particular unit.
Those arrangements could transfer valuable rights, but the individual unit did not always have the clear, separate registration identity that buyers, lenders and future purchasers expected. A transaction might depend on the parent title, the developer, a management company and a lengthy set of lease documents.
That dependence could make due diligence, financing and later transfers more cumbersome. A problem affecting the parent title could also matter to many unit holders at once.
The sectional system changes the structure of ownership. When a sectional plan is registered, the parcel register is closed and a separate register is opened for each unit shown on the plan. The Registrar then issues a certificate of title for a freehold unit or a certificate of lease for a leasehold unit.
What exactly is divided?
A sectional property is not simply a building split into apartment numbers. The registered arrangement separates the unit from the common property and records how the two are connected.
- The unit: The space identified by a unique number on the sectional plan and intended for separate ownership, such as an apartment, office or maisonette.
- The common property: The parts of the parcel and building that are not contained within an individual unit. Depending on the registered plan, these can include the land, structural elements, stairs, passages, roofs and shared service areas.
- Exclusive-use common areas: A parking bay, patio, balcony or yard may remain common property while its use is reserved or leased to a particular unit. Exclusive use is not the same as separate ownership, so the registered plan, lease and by-laws must be checked.
The distinction matters during a sale. A buyer should not assume that a parking space, roof terrace or garden belongs to the apartment simply because the current occupier uses it. The legal position should be traceable through the registered documents.
How are the boundaries of an apartment defined?
A land parcel is usually understood through boundaries on the ground. A sectional unit needs boundaries inside a building as well.
The Regulations provide a typical plan legend in which a unit adjoining common property is measured to the undecorated interior surface of its floor, wall or ceiling. The sectional plan can state the applicable boundary convention and use plans, elevations and sections to describe it.
This is why sectional surveying is sometimes described as dealing with three-dimensional space. The registered unit is related to floors, walls and ceilings, while the building itself remains tied to the parcel on the national land-registration system.
The practical question is not only “Which apartment number is this?” It is also “Where does the private unit end and the common property begin?”
Why is the sectional plan different from an architectural drawing?
An architectural plan communicates design and supports building approval. A sectional plan is a survey and registration document.
Under the Act, the sectional plan is prepared by a surveyor from a building plan approved by the county government. It must be geo-referenced, identify the title to the parcel, illustrate and number the units, show their approximate floor areas and carry a schedule of unit factors.
The plan also has to locate the building on the parcel and provide the drawings, sections, elevations and other information needed to define the units. The Regulations require it to be submitted to the authority responsible for survey for authentication.
The first sheet is endorsed by the surveyor, the property owner and the relevant county building-approval authority, together with the land-administration endorsement where rent apportionment applies.
What does geo-referencing achieve?
The sectional plan does not float independently from the land beneath the building.
Geo-referencing connects the plan to the parcel and the recognised survey reference system. It allows the building location and the sectional arrangement to be checked against the cadastral and survey records for the land.
That connection is especially important where the building sits close to a parcel boundary, where several blocks occupy one parcel or where the registered title information and the physical development do not immediately agree.
Before preparing the sectional plan, the survey team therefore needs the parent title, the relevant survey information and the approved county building plans. Field verification then confirms the building footprint and the details needed to describe the completed units.
What does the unit owner receive?
On registration, each unit receives a separate register. The resulting title document identifies the unit and includes its proportionate share in the common property.
That independent registration makes the unit easier to deal with in the ordinary land-registration system. It can be transferred or charged as a registered unit, subject to the interests and restrictions shown in its register and the law governing the scheme.
This can improve clarity for purchasers and lenders because the security or transfer relates to a defined unit rather than relying only on a sublease under an active parent title. It does not remove the need for due diligence: a buyer must still inspect the unit register, the sectional plan, the parcel history, the by-laws, approvals, service-charge position and any registered encumbrances.
What is the unit factor?
Every unit is assigned a whole-number unit factor on the sectional plan. Under the Regulations, the factors for all units in the parcel add up to 10,000.
Floor area is the recommended general basis, although value, position or a combination of equitable considerations may be used. A larger unit does not automatically receive a particular factor until the adopted method has been applied across the whole scheme.
The unit factor has real consequences. It determines the unit owner’s proportionate share in the common property and the owner’s voting rights in the corporation. The Act also uses unit-factor proportions when allocating specified interests, liabilities and contributions.
A buyer should therefore read the schedule rather than assuming every apartment has one equal vote or an equal share of every common cost.
Who manages the shared property?
Registration of the sectional plan automatically constitutes a corporation under the statutory name “The Owners, Sectional Plan No. [number]”. It is not an ordinary company formed at the developer’s discretion.
All unit owners are members. The corporation has a board and is responsible for functions that include controlling, managing and administering the common property, keeping it in serviceable repair, enforcing the by-laws and administering the scheme’s funds.
This gives the owners a defined governance structure for shared roofs, staircases, entrances, services and grounds. Good governance still depends on proper records, budgets, meetings and maintenance decisions; the statutory corporation provides the framework within which those decisions are made.
What happens to older long-term subleases?
Section 13 of the Act requires long-term subleases registered before the Act and intended to confer ownership of an apartment, flat, maisonette, townhouse or office to be reviewed so that they conform to section 54(5) of the Land Registration Act.
A developer, management company or unit owner may initiate that conversion. The Regulations set out the application forms and supporting documents for the process.
Conversion should not be treated as a change of heading on an old lease. The survey, the parent parcel, the completed building, the registered subleases and the ownership schedule must be reconciled. If the development on the ground differs from its approvals or earlier documents, those differences need to be identified and addressed.
The Act states a two-year review period from commencement. Because projects now present different histories and stages of compliance, owners should obtain advice on the current registry requirements and the facts of their scheme rather than assume that every old apartment follows an identical conversion route.
What should a buyer check before completing a purchase?
The apartment itself is only one part of the due-diligence picture.
- Does the unit have a separate register and certificate of title or lease, or is the sale still based on a sublease under the parent title?
- Does the unit number, floor area and physical layout agree with the registered sectional plan?
- What unit factor is assigned to the apartment, and what does it mean for common-property share, voting and contributions?
- Is the parking bay, store, balcony or garden part of the unit, common property or an exclusive-use common area?
- What charges, restrictions, cautions or other interests appear on the unit register and the relevant parcel records?
- Has the owners’ corporation been constituted, and are its by-laws, service-charge records, insurance and maintenance documents available?
- Does the completed building agree with the approved county plans and the registered sectional plan?
These checks involve surveying, conveyancing and property-management records. A clean-looking apartment and a sale agreement are not substitutes for comparing the physical unit with the registered scheme.
What should a developer prepare?
Start with the parent parcel and the approved development, not with apartment marketing names.
Provide the surveyor with the parent title, cadastral or survey records, approved county building plans, completion and occupation documents where applicable, an accurate unit schedule and access to the completed building.
Identify parking bays, stores, balconies, terraces, service rooms and other spaces early. Each needs a clear treatment as part of a unit, common property or an exclusive-use arrangement supported by the proper documents.
The architectural team, surveyor, advocate and developer should work from one reconciled set of information. If the numbering or layout changes between the approved drawings, the sales agreements and the completed building, registration becomes harder and buyers inherit uncertainty.
What should you send to Walterland?
For a new sectional plan or an older development being reviewed for conversion, send the parcel number, parent title, approved county building plans and the available unit schedule.
Include any registered subleases, existing sectional or architectural drawings, completion records and details of the parking, storage or private-use spaces promised to purchasers.
Explain whether the building is proposed, under construction or complete, and mention any changes made during construction. This helps the survey team identify the records review, field verification and plan preparation needed before registration.
Related Walterland services and guides
- Cadastral surveys: Connect the building and its units to the registered parcel and prepare the survey information required for a sectional plan.
- Topographic surveys: Record the completed building, site levels and physical features needed to compare the development with its plans.
- Land verification: Check the parcel, title and survey evidence before relying on a proposed apartment transaction.
- What Ardhisasa changed: Understand how cadastral survey records and land-registration workflows connect in Kenya’s digital environment.
- What a land surveyor does: See how surveyors connect physical occupation, measurements and registered land records.
Planning a sectional title or conversion?
Send the parent parcel details, approved building plans, unit schedule and any existing subleases. Walterland can review the survey position and explain the fieldwork and sectional-plan inputs the development needs.
Need to verify the parent parcel first? Explore land verification →
Legal references
General guidance, not legal advice or a determination of a particular development. The registered documents, approved plans, physical building and current registry requirements should be checked for each scheme.