Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May/June 2015 | Page 56

ZAMBIA

Zambia

High Potential As A Property
Investment Destination
BY MUTEPA KAMOTO

T

here has been good economic news trickling
in from the Southern African region. Global
investors are keen on finding the next big real
estate investment destination.
Zambia with a population of just over 13 million
people has lots to offer in terms of various real estate
investment opportunities. Unsurprisingly, these
positive African trends are going unnoticed.
Zambia in the last few years has fought well to book
its place among Southern Africa’s best investment
destinations. The country has seen fantastic investment
in properties in the following sectors from residential,
commercial, retail, agricultural to tourism.
While the agricultural sector is key priority in
Zambia, vast virgin stretches of landscapes remain
untouched. To the North of Zambia are two massive
fresh water sources of Luapula River and Lake
Bangweulu. The area boasts of untapped amounts of
land in thousands of hectares. Northern Zambia has its
fair share of unprecedented road development under
the Link Zambia 8000 project. Massive opportunities

“While the agricultural sector is key
priority in Zambia, vast virgin stretches
of landscapes remain untouched.”
in the tourism and agriculture sector in this part of the
country await exploration.
It is evident that the real estate sector has arrived at a
saturation point in almost all the developed countries.
This has compelled international real estate investors
to search for profitable opportunities in developing
nations such as Zambia, which has an emerging
economy with favourable demographics.
Zambia presents an extensive investment opportunity
for global participants especially in the priority sectors
of retail, agriculture, housing and tourism because of a
huge imbalance between the demand and supply in the
property sector.
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MAY 2015 SA Real Estate Investor

ZAMBIA AT A GLANCE
Income level: Lower income
GDP: US$26.82 billion (2013)
GDP Growth: 6.7% (2013)
Population: 14.6 million (2014)
Inflation: 7.1%
Political stability: 0.39 (2013)
Corruption Perception Index: 38 (2014)

RESOURCES
Property 36 and French, I, ‘Real Estate: Building the
Future of Africa’ (2015), PriceWaterhouseCoopers
www.reimag.co.za