The Africa Property Investment (API) Summit, now in its tenth year and, regarded as the continent’s leading real estate investment and development gathering will showcase how the investment case across the continent’s-built environment markets has matured over the past decade. In recognition of these developments, the Summit’s organising committee has released its high-level white paper here:
10 Trends Shaping African Real Estate.
Drawing on more than a decade of insights and inputs from its pan-African and international stakeholders from across the continent’s expanding real estate value chain, the white paper, details ten High-Level Trends and unlocks why these developments are likely to result in a new development cycle.
“The African Property Investment (API) Summit has been a catalyst in bringing stakeholders across the continent together,” comments one of Africa’s most vocal and experienced independent real estate advisor’s Kevin Teeroovengadum. “Not only being a forum whereby international investors get to meet and establish and enhance their relationships with local developers, but also as platform whereby best practices are shared,” he says.
As a current and former board member of leading operational, investment and development firms over the past 18 years, including the Radisson hotel group, Actis and AttAfrica amongst others, Teeroovengadum, is sought after by business leaders for his clinical insights into operating across the continent.
“We have made major improvements over the last decade, and at each API Summit every year, we can see the rise in sophistication in key markets. Not only have we seen growing number of investors, developers and asset managers interest in key markets, but also, a better understanding of the type of risk return profile of these markets.”
“Today, we have hands on data (be it land price, cost of development, rental levels, valuation, yields and so on), whereas 15 years ago, it was a lot of ‘guess-estimates’. Again, the API Summit has been extremely helpful to the industry having been able to pull that kind of intellectual property and sharing with the delegates,” he comments.
Sentiments which Kfir Rusin, the host of the 10th API Summit, and an additional eight supporting regional forums across the continent, shares.
“The African real estate market is maturing and we’ve noted 10 significant trends, which together are shaping Africa’s investable real estate sectors, players and markets for a new cycle of investment.”
According to Rusin, it’s the API Summit’s track record of sharing best practice insights and improving the ease of doing business across divergent markets, which has cemented its position as the premier gathering for African power players.
“Each of these trends, will be explored during the API Summit, and how they are all impacting real estate value chains across multiple jurisdictions.”
The Top Trends according to the report are as summarized below (for more information, please see white paper):
THE TOP TEN TRENDS SHAPING A NEW CYCLE OF INVESTMENT
1: INCREASED TRANSPARENCY: From 6 to 15 countries included on JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI)
2: MARKET FORMALISATION: The rise of Industry associations, events and Pan African Awards
3: CAPITAL MARKET GROWTH: The Steady Growth of Africa’s REITs Market
4: A FOCUSED & AFRICAN CENTRIC INVESTMENT STRATEGY: The rise of sector specific development and investment funds
5: THE INCREASING INFLUENCE OF AFRICA’S PENSION FUNDS ON REAL ESTATE: A Homegrown partner for Africa Development
6: PUBLIC SECTOR SUPPORT: Making housing and construction a conduit for inclusive growth
7: PROPTECH: Making Africa’s Real Estate Assets Fit for the Future
8: GREEN DEVELOPMENT: Overcoming power and infrastructure challenges
9: INCREASING GLOBAL INTEREST: Driven by yield tightening in traditional markets
10: INDIGENOUS DEVELOPERS: Paving a New Future
For Teeroovengadum; Transparency, PropTech and Green Development, are pivotal to overcoming traditional challenges in the market characterized by a lack of funding and infrastructure.
“We need to keep on the progress made on transparency, as there is a correlation between transparency and foreign direct investment in the real estate sector.”
And while the opportunity for PropTech is limited by adoption, application and investment; many investors and developers view the current proliferation of Start-Ups as similar to what happened in telecoms, says Teerovengadum.
“Disruption can only be positive in the African Real Estate space, the same way we saw disruption in the telephony space 15 years ago.”
Similarly, the rapid interest in Green Development is also entirely practical as “we are seeing growing number of developments tapping the solar generated power,” he says.
As one of 60+ speakers from 35 international and Africa countries speaking at API this year on 2 & 3 October in Johannesburg, this year’s theme, ‘Africa RE – Inspired’ will provide a lens for the continent’s investors to “gather and gear up for a new cycle of investment driven by new and fresh capital,” says Rusin.
 Summit, now in its tenth year and, regarded as the continent’s leading real estate investment and development gathering will showcase how the investment case across the continent’s-built environment markets has matured over the past decade. In recognition of these developments, the Summit’s organising committee has released its high-level white paper here:){kind=link}