Stamp duty is the tax you pay when you transfer property in Kenya, charged under the Stamp Duty Act (Cap 480) and collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority. For a transfer of land it is 4% of the value for property in urban areas — cities, municipalities and gazetted towns — and 2% for rural or agricultural land outside those boundaries. In April 2024 the Ministry of Lands expanded the list of gazetted towns and municipalities, which pushed several areas that were previously charged 2% — including parts of Kiambu — up to the 4% urban rate, so the boundary matters more than buyers often assume.
The figure that catches people out is the base. Stamp duty is not charged on the price you negotiated — it is charged on the open-market value set by the Chief Government Valuer under section 10A of the Act. If that valuation comes in above your agreed price, you pay duty on the higher number. On a KES 8 million home in town, 4% is KES 320,000; the same property treated as rural would be KES 160,000. Our stamp duty calculator lets you put in the valuation, pick urban or rural, and see the duty plus an indicative total transaction cost in one place.
Land is not the only instrument that is stamped. A transfer of unquoted shares attracts 1% (shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange are exempt), a lease of three years or less is 1% of the annual rent and a longer lease is 2%, and registering a charge or mortgage costs 0.1% of the amount secured. Several reliefs can take the duty to zero: transfers between spouses, transmission of property on death, first-time buyers under the Affordable Housing Scheme, and transfers of family property into a wholly family-owned company. None of these is automatic — you must apply to the Collector of Stamp Duties with a statutory declaration and supporting documents.
Stamp duty is only one line in the cost of buying. Budget too for your advocate's conveyancing fee — set by the Advocates (Remuneration) Order, commonly around 1–2% of the price with a statutory minimum and 16% VAT on top — and Land Registry charges such as the official search, registration and a new title, plus Land Control Board consent for agricultural land. These are indicative and vary by transaction, so always get a written quote. Stamp duty itself is paid through KRA iTax, generally within 30 days of assessment, and an unstamped instrument cannot be registered. If you are also working out your own tax position, our KRA tax guide covers PAYE and other personal taxes.
Finally, do not confuse stamp duty with land rates. Stamp duty is a one-off transfer tax; land rates are an annual charge levied by your county government under the National Rating Act, 2024 and the county's valuation roll. They vary widely from one county to the next — Nairobi, for instance, charges a percentage of the unimproved site value or a flat band per plot — so there is no single national land-rate number, and you should confirm the current rate with the county where the land sits. If you are renting rather than buying, our tenancy agreement guide is the better starting point.