Angola’s real estate market should remain robust in coming years, as demand for new homes and office buildings continues to be high, despite the global economic downturn, a leading developer said.

Jose Leitao, whose holding company, Grupo Gema, is building Angola’s biggest real-estate project, said he did not think the impasse in the nation’s first post-war presidential poll would deter investors from the sector. His $600-million building complex, dubbed Comandante Gika, consists of a five-star hotel, a shopping centre, 136 flats, and two 22-storey high office towers overlooking the capital Luanda. The project is expected to be complete by 2011. “In so far as demand continues to be higher than supply, real estate prices will remain at current levels,” Leitao said in an interview with Reuters late on Wednesday.

Property values, particularly in Luanda, skyrocketed amid an oil-fuelled economic boom that followed the end of a 27-year civil war in 2002, making the city one of the most expensive in the world to live in. Analysts say that although home and office sales in Angola have slowed down in recent months, real-estate prices remained high, hovering at last year’s record highs. “Home sales have slowed down slightly this year but we are still selling apartments for the same price as last year,” said Paula Oliveira, who runs a small real-estate firm in Luanda. “There is still big demand for real-estate in Angola, people are just thinking more before they buy.”

That may help explain why basic four-bedroom apartments at the Comandante Gika are going for up to $2 million while office apartments, with an area of 580 square meters, are selling for $3.5 million — most of which have already been sold. “What can I say, we have sold two-thirds of our flats and 95% of our office space at the Comandante Gika project,” he said. Leitao says he sees himself as a product of Angola’s booming economy. One of Angola’s richest men, Jose Leitao also holds interests in the banking, commerce, oil, agriculture, and mining sectors. As for the impact of the global economic downturn in Angola, Leitao said it was limited to the oil and diamond sector, which represents over 90% of Angola’s exports.

Angola’s government recently revised downwards the nation’s GDP growth to 6.2% in 2009 from 11.8% previously. However, while the oil sector is seen contracting 6.1% this year, the non-oil sector is expected to grow 15.4%, according to Angola’s Finance Ministry’s website.

ChairmanKing.com recently reported that real estate markets in Africa have been doing relatively well, in general, in spite of the global economic crisis.

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