REFILE-Angola real estate investors eye lower-cost housing

By Henrique Almeida

LUANDA (Reuters) - Angolan real estate -- once one of the world's most expensive -- now holds more promising investment prospects away from the top end of the market, according to real estate consultancy Colliers International.

As the global economic downturn weakens demand for multi-million dollar luxury homes in Luanda, the head of Colliers International in Angola, Nuno Serrenho, said investors should now look for opportunities in low- and medium-cost homes.

"What I see now is business opportunities in other areas of the market, such as building new homes for young Angolan workers and their families," Serrenho said in an interview with Reuters.

The south-western African nation faces a housing shortage as it recovers from a three decade-long civil war that ended in 2002, which devastated the countryside and prompted millions to flee to the cities.

Investors in Luanda's real estate market include conglomerate Escom, the Angolan arm of Portugal's Espirito Santo Group, as well as Brazilian construction firms Odebrecht and Carmargo Correia.

About a third of the country's 16.5 million people live in Luanda.

OVERHANG

With an overhang of unsold luxury homes, especially in the residential suburb of Luanda sul, promoters are pinning their hopes on a growing middle class of Angolans now eligible for home loans to drive demand for the medium-to-low income real estate market.