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Business Daily: Africa's Housing Dream

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Africa's Housing Dream

28/07/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Africa's Housing Dream

Africans dream of owning a home of their own. What are their options?

African cities are booming, but affording a home in metropolitan areas is only a distant dream for most working people. Ed Butler looks at the housing market.

A continent of huge opportunity but not for the faint-hearted. That is the verdict of South African investors at a recent forum on Africa's property market. And, it seems a valid assessment - with double-digit growth in some metropolitan areas over recent years as millions of migrants move to the cities to exploit the greater opportunities  - only for it to shudder to a halt in some places with the crash in oil and commodity prices. 

Ed Butler hears from Peter Welborn, a partner at the global real estate firm Knight Frank, who says that Africa remains positive. And, we report from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where property values have quadrupled over the last decade or so. While that is a boon for owners, it is a burden for the unhoused. Ordinary Kenyans are increasingly forced into the city's slums. Michael Kaloki reports from Kibera in Nairobi. The quality and volume of African housing, not to mention urban planning, leaves plenty to be desired. For an overview, Ed spoke to Kecia Rust, the executive director of the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, based in Johannesburg.

(Photo: A blimp branded with the message Housing is a Human Right over the Kibera slum, Nairobi. Credit: Getty Images)

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