The Luxury Real Estate Market in West Africa (2/2)

The Luxury Real Estate Market in West Africa (2/2)

In my previous article published in March, I gave you a general overview of luxury real estate market in Western Africa with a focus on Nigeria and Ghana. Today let us talk about some major projects initiated in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

Senegal: A new wind is blowing for the luxurious real estate market

With the era of new infrastructures initiated during the last 10 years, the Senegalese luxurious real estate market is also rising. The capital, Dakar gathers the most important luxurious real estate projects. The town is well-known as one of the West African cities where the real estate is very expensive.

Over the recent years, huge projects in terms of real estate are flourishing. The most famous among them, Waterfront is developed by Teyliom Group.

·         WATERFRONT DAKAR

The real estate division of Teyliom, Teylium Properties Senegal is focused on the markets of residential homes, office buildings, housing and commercial real estate. The Group has a portfolio of 10 properties investments across Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali.  The real estate assets of Teyliom Group are valued at 17 billion FCFA.

As one of the leading property developers in West Africa, here are some examples among the key assets of Teyliom Properties in Senegal:

Waterfront in Dakar is one of the most prestigious real estate development projects in Senegal.  The project was designed by South African Architect, Stephan ANTONI and Associates and realized by Cabinet AARS of Reida Suleiman designer of many buildings in Senegal.

With 146 residences, Town homes, apartments, Waterfront Dakar is located on a palm lined avenue overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The project was launched in 2007 and the price in the square meter is around 1.2 million and 1.5 million FCFA (1830 to 2280 euros). And the price of an apartment of 410 m² can reach more than 623 million FCFA. Despite the level of prices, Waterfront is a real success: 70% of the properties are already sold, 11% reserved and 19% in stock.

Other Hospitality infrastructures are related to Waterfront: Radisson Blu Hotel a 5 stars hotel in Dakar (Teyliom Group) and forms part of a larger development which includes designer retail stores, apartments, spa, cinema and a bowling alley; Sea Plaza, a shopping center where we can find different famous brands and retailers.

Ivory Coast: the revival of the real estate market

Among the key projects in the luxurious real estate market in West Africa, Ivory Coast is contributing positively. This is consistent with the country post crisis era.

Several real estate operators are playing an important role.

Besides, the recapitalization of the bank, Banque de l’Habitat de la Côte d’Ivoire which touched the bankruptcy makes the sector more dynamic. The BHCI has launches different real estate projects like Les Hauts de Djibi, a high standing program of housing in Cocody Town (where most of wealthy people are living). This is an addition to other luxury real estate projects such as: Cité World Partner’s (approximately 75 000 euros per prize), Riviera Beverly, Riviera Palm Beach near to Ébrié lagoon.
They are generally national investors and one of the most important players is the insurer NSIA which created in 2010 its real estate subsidiary, Tchegbao SA.

The major high standing real estate project which is currently in construction in Ivory Coast is made by Tchegbao SA. Below is a short presentation of it.

·         LES RÉSIDENCES CAMELLIA

It’s about the construction of 63 villas in the town of Cocody Abatta (Abidjan). The price of the villa can be estimated from 257 million FCFA (391 794 euros for an area between 600 and 1000 m².

The project is inspired of the “Gated communities” in the USA.

Some critics about the luxury real estate market in West Africa

Despite the development of several projects of luxury real estate, they are not welcomed by the whole population.

The Eko Atlantic project is an example of population’s division. Detractors argue that the problem of people who live in some precarious situation and cannot afford to housing should attract more attention and investments. And the gap with these coexisting universes is really problematic and engenders some negative consequences.  But the reality is that the private operators are interested by other issues (economic above all).

To solve this problem common to the major of West African countries, some governments are trying to solve these problems like in Ivory Coast and Senegal where real estate projects are devoted to the building of social residences. They include also middle and high class standing properties and are managed by the Moroccan Property developer, Alliances.

Certainly West Africa’s face in terms of real estate is changing but social imbalance in terms of purchasing power, life conditions and housing is still a major problem.

Fatou N’Diaye, Researcher, Infomineo.