House Construction Cost Calculator Kenya: Cost by Phase and Bill of Quantities
See what your house will cost to build in Kenya, phase by phase, before you buy a single bag of cement.
Checked 20 Oct 2026 against the sources listed below.
1. Your house plan
Single-storey house. Start from a typical plan, or let us read yours from a photo.
Rooms add up to 101 m². House outline: 13.1 × 8.7 m (worked out from the rooms).
2. How you'll build it
Where
Walls
Roof covering
Roof shape
Floors
Ceiling
Windows
Outside walls
Who builds
Rough cost to build
KES 3.2M – 3.7M
114 m² built · 10 rooms · 8 building phases
Cost of each phase
- 1FoundationKES 000,000
- 2WallingKES 000,000
- 3RoofingKES 000,000
- 4Doors and windowsKES 000,000
- 5Plaster and floorsKES 000,000
- 6Ceiling and paintingKES 000,000
- 7Wiring and plumbingKES 000,000
- 8Septic, water and approvalsKES 000,000
Full bill of quantities: 58 items
Every bag of cement, stone, bar of steel, iron sheet and door, with quantities, rates and amounts.
Build as you save
At KES 100,000 a month you could finish in about 3 years. See the month each phase can start.
Excel with live prices
Change any price to your hardware's quote and the whole estimate updates. Plus a shopping list for each phase.
Less than 0.01% of what you'll spend on the house. Pay with M-Pesa, see it in seconds.
An estimate from typical quantities for a single-storey house, not a quantity surveyor's BOQ. Have an engineer check the foundation for your soil, and get supplier quotes before you buy.
The full explanation, with worked examples and what to watch for: Bill of Quantities for a 3-Bedroom House in Kenya (2026): Every Material, Phase by Phase
About this tool
Upload a photo of your house plan, or start from a typical 2, 3 or 4-bedroom bungalow. The calculator measures your walls, roof and floors from the rooms, counts the stones, cement, sand, ballast, steel, timber and iron sheets, and prices them at typical 2026 rates you can change to your supplier's quotes.
The free estimate gives a rough total. The full breakdown adds the cost of every phase (foundation, walling, roofing, doors and windows, plaster and floors, ceiling and painting, wiring and plumbing, septic and approvals), a complete bill of quantities (BOQ), an Excel version with live prices, a shopping list and when you can start each phase from what you save.
Example: a 3-bedroom bungalow with 101 m² of rooms (114 m² built) in Nairobi, in machine-cut stone with a mabati roof, lands in the mid-KES 3 millions with your own fundis, and about a fifth more through a contractor.
How the house construction cost calculator works
- Your rooms. Pick a typical plan, type your rooms and their sizes, or upload a photo of your floor plan and we read the rooms and sizes for you. Check every size against the plan: a misread "3600" changes the whole estimate.
- Measuring. From the rooms and the house outline, the calculator works out the length of every wall (outside and inside), the wall area after doors and windows, the floor area, the roof area at a 25° pitch with 600 mm overhangs, and the number of windows and doors each room needs.
- Counting materials. Standard Kenyan practice turns those measurements into materials: strip footings and four courses of 9×9 stone for the foundation, a 100 mm slab on 230 mm of hardcore with BRC mesh, 6×9 stone walls with a ring beam on top, timber trusses at 900 mm, box-profile mabati, 15 mm plaster, a 40 mm screed and two coats of paint.
- Pricing. Each item is multiplied by a typical 2026 price for Nairobi, other towns or rural areas. Every price can be changed to your hardware's quote. Labour is added per phase as a share of materials, which is how most fundis price a job.
Cost of building a house in Kenya by phase
For the typical 3-bedroom bungalow above (114 m² built, Nairobi prices, own fundis), the phases split like this:
| Phase | Share of the budget |
|---|---|
| Foundation | about 18% |
| Walling and ring beam | about 10% |
| Roofing | about 13% |
| Doors and windows | about 10% |
| Plaster and floors | about 15% |
| Ceiling and painting | about 7% |
| Wiring and plumbing | about 12% |
| Septic, water tank and approvals | about 14% |
The foundation is the biggest single phase, and roofing comes third: the two are where most people's first budgets fall short. The shilling cost of each phase for your plan is in the full breakdown. Our bill of quantities for a 3-bedroom house explains what goes into each one.
Why this is cheaper than the KES 45,000–65,000 per m² you'll read elsewhere
Published per-m² rates are for contractor-built houses, with the contractor's overheads and profit, supervision and professional fees. Most Kenyans build with their own fundis and buy materials themselves, which is what this calculator assumes by default, and comes out well below those rates. Choose "A contractor" and it adds a 20% margin. It also leaves out land, fencing and gate, paving, kitchen cabinets, wardrobes and furniture.
Still buying the plot? Put the deal in writing first with our land sale agreement template, and see what a boundary wall adds with the perimeter wall cost calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a 3-bedroom house in Kenya?
About KES 3.0 million to 4.8 million for a 3-bedroom bungalow of around 114 m² in 2026: roughly KES 3.0 million for a rural build in concrete blocks with screed floors and no ceiling, KES 3.5 million for a standard Nairobi build with your own fundis, and KES 4.8 million with stone-coated tiles, porcelain floors, aluminium windows and a contractor. Our guide to the cost of building a 3-bedroom house in Kenya compares rural and urban prices.
Can I build a house in phases?
Yes, and most Kenyans do. In the full breakdown, enter what you have saved and what you can save each month, and it shows the month each phase can start. Protect the structure before you stop: a finished ring beam and roof keep the walls safe from rain while you save for the finishes.
How many bags of cement does a 3-bedroom house need?
A few hundred 50 kg bags for a 114 m² stone bungalow. The foundation and slab take the biggest share (close to half), then plaster and screed, then the walls and ring beam. Block or brick walls, a thicker slab or columns need more. The full breakdown counts the bags for your plan, phase by phase.
Can it read my house plan?
Upload a clear photo, screenshot or PDF of the ground-floor plan with room sizes written on it. We read the rooms, their sizes and the outside dimensions with Google's Gemini AI, then you check and correct them. The image is used to read the plan and isn't stored by SwiftPesa.
Does it work for a maisonette or storey building?
Not yet: it estimates single-storey houses. A storey building needs columns, beams and a suspended slab designed by a structural engineer.
Is this a proper BOQ?
It's a detailed estimate built the way a BOQ is, from measured quantities and rates, so you can budget, compare fundis' quotes and buy materials phase by phase. For a bank loan or a contract, have a registered quantity surveyor prepare the final BOQ, and an engineer check the foundation for your soil.