Property, interior design and portfolio websites in East Africa: show the work, name the fee

Someone shopping for a flat, a lighting plan, a new living room or a logo wants to see the work and know the price before they pick up the phone. Many property and interior design websites in East Africa show the first and keep the second for a call. The concepts below, all from our gallery, show both.

Each is a concept site we designed for an invented business, or in one case an invented solo designer. None of them is a client.

Let overseas buyers filter, then book a viewing

A buyer looking at Dar es Salaam property from abroad shops on their own time. Upeo Residences, a developer and agency on the city's north shore, puts a search bar across the hero. Choose buy or rent, an area, a property type and a maximum price, and the button tells you how many homes match.

Every price is in US dollars, with no "price on request". A "Buying from abroad" section walks through the process week by week, from a live video viewing to independent legal checks, staged payments and the keys. The viewing form offers in-person or live video viewings, booked around your time zone.

Answer the hard questions plainly

Upeo answers the awkward questions on the page. On whether non-citizens can buy, it says the rules differ, and that an independent advocate will explain the right route in writing before you pay more than a holding deposit. It also covers whether you can buy without visiting, and who looks after the home while you are away. Straight answers like these read as confidence.

Show what the work feels like

Interior and lighting design is hard to judge from a still photo. Kandili Interiors, a lighting and interiors studio in Dar es Salaam, solves this with a light-scene switcher. One living room photograph switches from daylight through to midnight, and the page shows which circuits are doing the work, from the picture cove to the floor washers, with the colour temperature and power use for each scene.

The same page names its prices. Design is priced from a set figure per room, lighting per floor and furniture per piece, and the 90-minute consultation fee is credited against the design fee. Consultations can be booked for 18:30, after dark.

Name your fees before anyone asks

Tawi Studio is an interior design studio in Nairobi with a section called "Clear fees, before we draw a line". Each service has a starting price in Kenyan shillings, from a two-hour consultation up to a whole home, except project management, which is a stated percentage of the build. A note underneath says what the fees leave out, such as VAT and furniture.

The process is set out in five steps with the weeks each takes. The site-visit form asks for a design budget band, so the first conversation starts in the right place.

For a studio of one, show availability too

A solo designer sells time, so the website should say how much is left. Keza Murenzi is a brand and product designer in Kigali. Her page shows the next opening date, her two-project limit, her time zone and her working hours. Case studies filter by brand or product. Four services have fixed fees, with the scope and timing for each.

The brief form asks for the kind of work and a budget band, and promises a reply within two working days. A short "You talk to me" note makes clear who actually does the work.

Apps and subscriptions follow the same rule

Two more concepts apply the same thinking to apps. Pazia, a streaming service, leads with African films and series, then sets out its plans from $2.99 to $8.99 a month, with screens, picture quality, downloads and profiles compared, and payment by mobile money or card. Mwavuli, a savings-group app, has a security section that says in plain words it never holds the group's money and is a record-keeping app rather than a bank.

What a property or interior design website costs

Property search and filters, a viewing request, a light-scene switcher or a filterable portfolio make a Big website: $350, paid once when the work is done, with no deposit and no page limit. A portfolio that shows your work and fees, with a contact form, is a Small website at $300. Both go live two weeks after your content arrives, and each has a dedicated manager who looks after it.

Requests go to your inbox or WhatsApp for you to confirm, and anything that takes payments online is quoted separately. The web design page has the full scope.

Find the concept in our gallery closest to your work, then book a call or message us on WhatsApp. We will tell you what your version would take.