Analysis: Addis Ababa property boom leaves poor behind

A worker stands on wooden scaffolding at the construction site of a new hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Ethiopia's arabica coffee export earnings are forecast to climb 25 percent to about $900 million in 2014-15 because of higher prices after a drought damaged plants in the biggest grower of the bean, Brazil, an industry group said. Photogrsapher: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

A worker stands on wooden scaffolding at the construction site of a new hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Ethiopia's arabica coffee export earnings are forecast to climb 25 percent to about $900 million in 2014-15 because of higher prices after a drought damaged plants in the biggest grower of the bean, Brazil, an industry group said. Photogrsapher: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Published Jul 3, 2015

Share

Drazen Jorgic and Aaron Maasho Addis Ababa

A property boom in Ethiopia’s capital is putting pressure on the government to keep homes affordable for some of Africa’s poorest people who also live in one of its fastest-growing economies.

Smart flats and hotels in glass buildings rise up in areas of Addis Ababa where shacks once stood. An emerging middle class is snapping up homes, but waiting lists for cheap state-built apartments grow.

This is a challenge for the government whose huge, state-led investments in infrastructure have sucked in financing from heavily regulated banks, driving up economic growth but leaving little capital to spur on developers who could help meet the shortfall in housing.

“This house and flat business is booming. If I had enough money, I would buy more,” said businessman Seife Tefera, who bought a flat for 1.7 million birr (R1 million), paid in two cash installments.

Paying that kind of sum is only possible for a tiny portion of the population of Ethiopia, a country that was ravaged by communist purges in the 1970s and famine in the 1980s.

The economy may boast double-digit growth, but average income per person is about $470 (R5 730) a year, below the sub-Saharan African average.

Across Africa, rising wealth and an expanding middle class have fuelled demand for new homes, but there are few parallels to Ethiopia’s state interventionist approach and its control over how banks lend money.

“The main challenge in Ethiopia is financing,” said Rateneh Fassil, who markets homes for upscale developer Noah Real Estate, blaming part of the boom on people hunting for investments when bank deposits offer poor returns.

“It’s not just about owning a home, in some ways it is a hedge against inflation.”

Ethiopia’s banking system is dominated by state-owned institutions. There are about 16 private banks, but they must invest the 27 percent of their loan portfolio in low-yielding state development bonds.

The bonds have contributed to building a new national rail network, hydro-electric dams and roads to remote regions, lifting growth forecasts to 10 percent for this fiscal year.

But there are few funds left for a mortgage market, so private property developers struggle to raise finance. The homes they build target cash buyers, demanding sums most of those in the capital can only imagine.

“We can’t think for a minute that we can afford private housing,” said Sergut Adamu, a hotel worker earning about 1 400 birr a month. “We would have to win the lottery.”

The government has vowed to step in. It has embarked on one of Africa’s biggest state housing projects, building about 32 000 units a year since 2006 and creating a savings scheme that offers subsidised mortgages to the poorest.

But that still falls far short of demand. At the end of 2013, the last year for which official figures were available, about 900 000 people were on a waiting list for a flat in Addis Ababa. – Reuters

Related Topics: