The maisonette is not a style decision. It is arithmetic: the same rooms on half the footprint, and the difference handed back to you as ground. What that arithmetic does not tell you is which plot it fits on — and on this plan, coverage and plot size give different answers.
The plan this is written from is one we publish in full — 229.1 m² over two storeys, four bedrooms of which three are ensuite, a family lounge, a detached DSQ and a carport, under a flat roof concealed behind parapets.
What it costs to build
Our published band is KES 7.23M – 9.20M, derived from the priced bill of quantities for that drawing. Per square metre that is a little under the bungalow's rate — larger houses generally build cheaper per square metre, because the expensive parts of a house do not scale with its floor area.
As always, that is the building. Land, perimeter wall, gate, water, power and landscaping sit outside it.
How the floors divide
- Ground: the public halfLiving and dining, kitchen with its pantry and yard access, a guest bedroom or study, and a WC that visitors can reach without entering the bedroom wing. Putting one bedroom downstairs is the single most useful decision in a Kenyan maisonette — it serves ageing parents, long-staying guests and anyone who cannot take stairs.
- Upper: the private halfThe remaining bedrooms and a family lounge. That lounge is what separates a maisonette from a big bungalow: a second sitting room nobody has to tidy for visitors.
- Detached: the DSQDomestic staff quarters, with its own entrance and its own WC. Detached rather than absorbed into the house, which is both the convention and the more comfortable arrangement for everyone.
Why it fits where a bungalow does not
Coverage is measured on footprint, not floor area. A two-storey 229.1 m² house puts a little over half of that on the ground — comfortably inside a 50% coverage limit even on an eighth-acre. The equivalent accommodation as a bungalow would not be.
But coverage passing is not the same as fitting. We state this plan as suiting a plot from 100 × 100 ft (30.5 × 30.5 m) upward — a quarter-acre, not an eighth — and the reason is everything that is not the house. The carport needs a driveway a car can turn in, the DSQ is detached and needs its own approach, the septic sits 3 m off every boundary, and the setback envelope takes a strip off all four sides. Squeeze that onto an eighth-acre and the coverage calculation still passes while the compound becomes unusable. That is the honest reading of a two-storey plan: going up buys you ground, and this particular plan spends the ground it buys on a carport, a DSQ and a garden. A more compact maisonette on the same principle will sit on an eighth-acre; this one is drawn for more.
The stair is a real design element
It takes floor area on both levels, it needs headroom, and it is the one part of a house people misjudge from a drawing. Two things to check on any maisonette plan: that no room door opens onto a stair flight, and that the stair lands somewhere sensible rather than into the middle of the upper lounge. Both are things a plan can get wrong while passing every dimensional check.
What to check before you commit
- Your coverage limit60% in Nairobi, 50% in Kiambu and Kajiado — and confirm the zone schedule for your specific plot, because it can be tighter.
- The setback envelopeFront, side and rear distances come from that same schedule. They decide where the footprint can go, which decides whether the carport and DSQ have anywhere to sit.
- Ensuite count against plumbingThree ensuites plus a guest WC plus the DSQ is five wet areas. Stacking them — upper bathrooms above ground-floor wet rooms — is what keeps the plumbing sane and the ceilings dry.
- Where the sun comes fromKenya is on the equator; east and west elevations take the harsh low sun. Which side your bedrooms face is a decision, and on a stock plan it was made for a plot that is not yours.
Both of the plans we publish are drawn to the same county code checks and both are ready for a BORAQS-registered architect's stamp. A dimensioned floor-plan pack starts at KES 3,500; the stamped county-submission set is KES 29,500.