Despite Africa’s slowdown, property developers and private equity funds continue to pour investment into the continent, but with more focused strategies, industry practitioners have said.
“Over $1,2 billion has been raised and allocated to real estate investment in Africa over the past year and we expect this trend to continue,” said Kfir Rusin, General Manager of the upcoming Africa Property Investment Summit.
Commenting on the global capital flows making their mark on African real estate, Peter Welborn, chairman of Knight Franks’ Africa business said: “The underlying investment theme across sub-Saharan Africa, over the next decade will undoubtedly be driven by substantial allocations of equity, into JV’s with successful local partners. Both the west African retail sector as well as the southern and east Africa logistics sectors will be high on the hit list of international capital.”
The last year has seen Actis, RMB Westport, Novare, Phatisa and Growthpoint successfully raising capital from global funds such as GIC Singapore, Grosvenor (USA), The IFC, CDC Group (UK) among other international funds.
The Africa Property Investment (API) Summit is the leading African focused real estate forum, which brings together influential property players from around the continent. The API Summit offers developers and investors access to new development strategies, a chance to showcase projects and meet with new sources of capital across sub-Saharan Africa. The summit is the perfect opportunity to leverage off the expertise and knowledge of key industry players.
“This year’s summit will feature various discussions on innovative strategies and collaboration, as well as showcasing new real estate opportunities and projects across Africa. Whilst uncertainty remains, we believe that African property is still poised for growth, albeit at a lower but more sustainable level,” says Rusin.
The effects of the currency and liquidity crises have been sharply felt across the continent but most notably in the larger oil driven commodity exporting countries. This has resulted in a shift towards economic diversification and countries in the East African region providing more economic stability than others. Although there has been a slowdown across Africa, one of the continents’ largest funds remain optimistic. Bronwyn Corbett, CEO of Mara Delta says, “The company remains bullish under the African growth story. We have built extensive IP into our target countries and see tremendous growth in these markets that we are levering to build an Africa powerhouse real estate fund. Focus is on the strength of the counter party and mitigation of risks to build a quality portfolio and deliver substantial returns to shareholders.”
“We can already confirm over 500 delegates from over 30 different countries. We have noticed substantial growth in delegate numbers, with a 30% increase in attendance and a large international contingent compared to previous years. We see real estate and related industries as an important contributor to GDP in Africa and therefore we expect this trend to continue in future years,” concluded Rusin.
The two-day conference will be held from 18-19 August 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg and will feature speakers from Broll, CBRE, Mara Delta, Knight Frank, Old Mutual, STANLIB, Standard Bank, Novare, RMB Westport, JLL, CDC Group, ALN, ITL, Growthpoint, UPDC, Britam, Fusion Capital, and Heriot Properties.
Key sessions at the API Summit will include: The Role of global capital in Africa , Africa’s Retail reality check, Logistics & Industrial sector making its mark as well as focused discussions on countries such as Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Tanzania.
