Report Series: Landscapes of Housing investment - Central Africa

This regional report forms part of The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance’s Investor Programme which aims at addressing key information asymmetries on who, why and how investments are made in the African housing sector. With the intention of identifying and championing increased investment in affordable housing, the report includes insights and analysis into the depth and breadth of investment in Central Africa’s housing and housing finance sectors. The overall goal of this project is to quantify the breadth of investment activity with respect to housing and housing finance across Africa, and to establish a mechanism to track this on an ongoing basis. This project has collected data and highlights gaps and opportunities in the investment landscape. With the aim of stimulating greater investment in affordable housing and connecting investors with potential investments, the report profiles investors and investment instruments with the greatest impact on the housing finance market within the Central African region.

The investment landscape in the four Central African countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) is primarily made up of public sector investors and international Development Finance institutions (DFIs).In the period 2001 to 2017, US$ 4.9 billion was collectively invested in activities that both directly and indirectly impacted the housing and housing finance sectors. 12.4 percent of these investments were from national governments, while the balance was from foreign institutional investors. From the figure below, the biggest investors in the region are property developers. Forum Properties Africa from South Africa is the biggest investor in the region. The investor is developing a US$1.4 billion mixed-use development, on the outskirts of Luano City, in the DRC. The Dubai Islamic Bank, from the United Arab Emirates, is the second largest investor. The Bank has invested close to US$ 1 billion through a joint venture company owned by DAL Group Ltd and the Government of Sudan. The project involves a mixed residential and commercial development in Khartoum. The third and fourth biggest investors are the Governments of Ethiopia and Sudan, collectively contributing US$ 602 million, over the period 2001 to 2017.