In Nairobi, the skyline tells only part of the story. Behind the cranes and glass towers lies a regional transformation, as East Africa’s real estate sector emerges as a bright spot in the global investment landscape.
As Nairobi’s Pullman Upperhill Hotel hosted the 12th East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) Summit, the mood reflected the sector’s surprising resilience and ambitious future.
Against a backdrop of cooling interest rates and surging capital inflows, the sector has continued to rely on technology, urbanization, and shifting lifestyles to rewrite the region’s property playbook. From Nairobi’s logistics hubs to Dar es Salaam’s affordable housing projects, East Africa’s property markets are defying global economic pressures.
According to the summit themed ‘Positioning for Opportunity’, commercial assets, hospitality developments, and mixed-use projects are attracting record investment across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
In fact, in accordance to Abdi Mohammed, CEO of Absa Kenya, East Africa’s cities are evolving beyond traditional business districts into integrated live-work-play ecosystems. Nairobi has been ranked among the top 10 cities in Africa for real estate investment in 2024, driven by the growing middle class, the tech ecosystem in the market, and some good progress on infrastructure development.
We continue to see the rise of mixed-use development, and this continues to shape the urban landscape, not just in Kenya, but across the region, as cities respond to changing lifestyles and work patterns.
The human dimension of this boom also came into sharp focus during the discussions which gathered over 450+ global investors, developers, and professionals from across the real estate and hospitality sectors.
With Sub-Saharan Africa projected to reach 60% urbanization by 2050, the scale of opportunity and challenge became clear. Africa is the fastest urbanizing population in the world.
The World Bank is suggesting it will be 60% urbanized as a population by 2050, which is 900 million people living in urban centers across Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, so that’s a huge demand for housing, said Mark Dunford, CEO, Knight Frank Kenya.
This highlights the urgent demand for innovative solutions. The summit also explored a number of other topics, everything from AI-powered property management to build-to-rent models that could bridge East Africa’s affordability gap, while developers exchanged strategies for securing capital in an era of tighter financing.
In addition, the forum, which was co-located with the EAPI Hospitality Forum and EAPI Proptech Forums, focused on specific market segments, providing insights into healthcare in Kenya, the growth of hospitality real estate including high-end resorts, beachfront villas, conservation developments, luxury, community, and wellness assets.
