Homes in Kenya, listed so they can be trusted.
SpaceYako is a marketplace for homes to buy and rent across Kenya. It exists because a listing is only useful while it is still true, so here a listing has to keep earning its place.
A place to look, and a reason to believe what you find.
Most property sites in Kenya are noticeboards. Anyone can pin anything, nothing is taken down, and the person looking carries all of the risk: the flat that was let months ago, the photos borrowed from another advert, the “agent” who wants a deposit before a viewing.
SpaceYako is built the other way round. Listings age and expire. Agent badges lapse with the licence behind them. Photos are checked against each other. Money never changes hands on the platform. None of that makes a home good, but it means the listing in front of you is current, and that you can see what has been checked about the agent behind it.
It is free to browse, and you do not need an account to look. Agents pay to list, which is the whole business, and it is why the site can afford to take a listing down.
SpaceYako launched in 2026 and is operated by Lock & Mercer, a venture studio in Nairobi. It is a property marketplace and nothing else: it does not sell hosting, servers or any other service, and it is not connected to any business outside Kenya that uses a similar name.
Five rules the code enforces.
Each of these is a mechanism, not a promise. They are described in full, with their limits, on the features page.
- 01
A listing has a life
Every listing carries the date it was confirmed and comes down after sixty days unless the agent renews it. What you see is still on the market, or it is not shown.
- 02
A badge that lapses with the licence
An agent's EARB badge shows the Estate Agents Registration Board number and practising-certificate expiry they gave us, and comes off on that date. We do not yet check the number against the Board's register, so the trust page shows how to check it yourself.
- 03
Photos are fingerprinted
Each photo is compared against the ones already on the site, so a set of pictures lifted from another listing can be caught before it reaches you.
- 04
Pressure is a signal
New listings are read for the language of urgency and for requests to move payment off the platform. Every listing an agent submits is then reviewed by a person before it goes live. Nothing is approved by a machine alone.
- 05
No money moves here
People looking never pay. Agents pay to list. The platform does not hold deposits and is not where they change hands.
What we do not do matters as much. We do not inspect homes, hold deposits, or vouch for a price. Naming a limit is what makes the rest believable.
The honest limits
Nairobi, and one inbox.
- Nairobi, Kenya
- karibu@spaceyako.com
Found a listing that should not be up? Every listing page has a report button, and reports reach a person.