Build in Kenya without sleeping with one eye open.
Every shilling escrowed. Every milestone verified. Every drone photo timestamped.
The default way construction works in Kenya is invisible from abroad — that's what makes it dangerous. Your money sits in escrow. An independent supervisor signs off each stage. Every foundation photo is dated. You don't need to trust anyone. The process makes trust unnecessary.
17,016
Kenya-ready plans catalogued
CAD-native, county-tagged, ready to adapt
4–7%
Total BuildSafe fee
vs 8–15% for the old-school PM stack
7-day
Retention window on every tranche
catches the snags a walk-through misses
Get practical build updates
Weekly Kenya construction finance, plan, and site-management notes.
Join the conversation
Ask practical construction questions and learn from Kenyan builders.
You already know a Banda Homes story.
KES 5B allegedly lost by one developer. KES 2B by another. Those are the ones that made the papers. The ones that didn't: your neighbour, your cousin, a KES 1.8M runner, no legal path to recovery. The default way Kenya builds isn't broken — it's designed this way. ArchTx is the alternative design.
PlotWatch
That empty plot you bought in 2022? Someone might be building on it right now. KES 900/mo puts a drone over it monthly and a walker on the ground. Cheaper than the phone bill you'd rack up asking cousins to "go check".
LandGuard
Most land disputes start with a title someone should have checked before buying. KES 2 500 gets a registry search, encumbrance check, ownership timeline, and a boundary walk. Do it before you wire the deposit — not after.
BuildSafe escrow
Milestone-locked, supervisor-verified, three-tranche release (60/30/10). Nothing leaves your account until an independent human confirms the work exists. 4–7% of build cost. Kenyan PMs charge 8–15% for less.
BORAQS-approvable plans
A starting point built to survive the BORAQS approval path, not a finished submission. CAD-native so your architect adapts it to your site and site conditions in days, not weeks, then signs it off. From KES 5 000, capped at KES 20 000. Not another Pinterest board.
Supervision that isn't on the contractor's payroll
Your supervisor is paid by escrow, not by the contractor. They don't get their fee if they sign off garbage. That inversion is the entire product — everything else is delivery.
Drone imagery, timestamped
Weekly aerials, GPS-EXIF-stamped, filed to your dashboard. When someone at site says "the slab is poured", you already have the photo — dated to the hour, tied to the milestone.
Three steps. The contractor never holds unspent money.
This is the entire mechanism. Everything else — drone photos, supervisor sign-off, retention window — is the wiring that makes step three trustworthy.
- Step 1
Pick or brief a plan
Filter 17k+ Kenya-ready plans, or brief a BORAQS architect on your site. Full CAD ships with every purchase — your builder starts adapting the same day.
- Step 2
Fund milestone one — into escrow, not into a contractor's account
You deposit for the milestone that's about to start. Not the whole build. Not next quarter's. Just what the site needs this month, held by escrow the day it lands.
- Step 3
Supervisor signs off · 60/30/10 releases
Independent supervisor verifies. Drone imagery timestamps it. 60% releases on sign-off, 30% after a 7-day retention window, 10% at handover. Repeat per milestone. Nothing leaves your account until the work exists.
Real amounts. Real timelines. Real counties.
No stock photos. No round numbers. If a homeowner is willing to put their county and KES down on paper, they mean it.
“Boston to Kisumu is 11 timezones. I sent KES 7.2M in tranches over 10 months and never met the contractor until handover. Every release went out with a supervisor sign-off and 40+ dated drone photos I could zoom into from my phone. Zero cash requests, zero surprises.”
Adhiambo N.
Homeowner, Boston → Kisumu
“My last two builds bled cash — this one didn't. KES 4.8M budget, KES 4.83M spent, 9 months to handover. The 7-day retention window caught a bathroom leak the contractor would've walked away from before.”
Peter K.
Homeowner, Nairobi
“Bought the plan on a Monday. Site adaptation delivered Thursday. Broke ground week two. What used to take an architect a month took two days because the drawings were already CAD-clean.”
Wanjiru M.
Client, Kiambu
Get paid the day the work exists.
Escrow-funded work removes the two questions that eat the industry: “will the client pay” and “when”. Sign off, get paid, next milestone. Architects, contractors, supervisors, drone operators — pick your track.
Architects
List plans once, earn royalties every time one is licensed. Take on paid customisation briefs from clients who already know what they want.
JoinContractors
Bid on scoped milestones, not vague builds. Get paid the day the supervisor signs off — not 60 days after invoice, not "when the client is back in town".
JoinSupervisors
You're paid by escrow, not by the contractor. Sign off honest work, flag the rest. Independent oversight the way it was meant to be.
JoinDrone Operators
KCAA-licensed only. Aerial, topographic, and inspection jobs routed by county. Recurring PlotWatch contracts pay monthly, not one-off.
JoinStart with what you're actually building
17 000+ plans, filtered by what you need — not by what looks good on a mood board.
KES 8–12M is going into this build either way.
4–7% for BuildSafe guarantees the other 93–96%. The math is uncomfortable to argue with. Free to sign up. No commitment until you fund your first milestone.
Are you a Kenyan advocate? Join our panel.