MOZAMBIQUE
Maputo Property Explosion
Maputo’s Luxury Condominium Market
BY BRYAN WESTER
T
he explosion of luxury residential apartment
and housing condominiums currently being
experienced by the capital city of Maputo
is an aspect that has seen many multi-national
developers becoming eagerly involved in the
Mozambique market.
One can simply see by driving through Maputo
the high level of construction activity, with crane
after crane dominating the new emerging skyline,
with many either nearing completion or newly
completed.
The most notable change evident to the general
public is one of an alarming low occupancy rate of
these brand new high-rise condominiums versus
a comparison to 2015. This is influenced by many
factors such as supply catching up to demand,
fiscal and exchange rate fluctuations, creating high
entry prices into these condominiums and a wider
availability of choice presented to the market than
ever before.
It is to be known, and a most welcome relief to
many investors and citizens of Mozambique that
there has been a gradual price decrease in terms of
rental pricing points with many investors not able to
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Offshore Handbook 2016
continue the extremely high pricing that has become
a common occurrence in previous years.
With over 25 high-rise apartment condominiums
either completed or nearing completion, one begs to
ask the questions. Who is the target market of these
condominiums, which often release at pricing points
of between USD 450,000 to well over USD 850,000?
This is certainly the highest end of the market who is
only able to enter at such prices.
The general trend that has emerged from an
investor perspective is that of a buy-to-let strategy
with average rental prices for these new luxurious
apartments ranging from USD 3,500 to USD 6,000.
These figures here are a drop from the previous price
ranges experienced from 2010 – 2014, thanks to the
overwhelming number of new developments taking
place.
Yes, it can always be said that a country in the
position of Mozambique with robust GDP growth
hovering around the 7% mark for many years based
on the large natural Gas Discovery’s experiencing
an accelerating factor predominately through the
real estate markets with extremely high prices.
Most notable examples are the countries of Nigeria,
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