AGRO-INDUSTRY
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt the bullish sentiment around the local real estate market, there is a common agreement among investors and real estate companies that Mozambique will remain a buyer’s market in the years to follow.
José Castilho MANAGING PARTNER, BROLL MOZAMBIQUE
BROLL GROUP has a presence in 15 countries in Africa through its subsidiaries. The group began operations in Mozambique in 2015 and became profitable from 2017 onward. Broll is currently the largest real estate provider in Mozambique, in terms of customers, revenue, and current projects. The company is active in a number of fields. We represent Cushman & Wakefield in occupier services. We also do property facility management and transactions, as well as research and evaluations. Transactions and facilities management is our main focus in Mozambique. Our modus operandi consists of leveraging the group’s experience as a whole and applying it to specific countries, developing each area according to local exigencies. Our strength in the market is the way we do business; we abide by strict policies and international standards to deliver the highest quality service. This makes us the preferred service provider in the country. Another strength is the international network that we have at our disposal through Cushman & Wakefield. In the transaction area, we have been working with a number of banks, real estate developers, and other sectors. We recently finalized our development strategy for the next three years. Besides our current focus on transactions and facility management, we look forward to developing occupier services and boosting our capabilities to target a wave of new investors who are looking to set up shop in Mozambique.
Joel Prista FOUNDER, ILULU LDA.
ILULU WAS FOUNDED in 2012 in the middle of the coal boom and at the start of the oil and gas bonanza. At first, we invested in property assets in the northern cities of Nacala and Pemba, where the international attention was heading. The obstacle to investing in real estate in Mozambique is that the high interest rate, coupled with the lack of a proper tax framework for real estate, makes it virtually impossible for a small player to become a developer. As a small player, we soon came to realize we needed to build our model around a different modality, exploring our work ethics and local knowledge by providing services and building partnerships. Thus, we expanded our portfolio to property management, asset management, serviced offices, and real estate brokerage. We now see ourselves as a local company which helps international companies looking for trusted local representative and management services. For the last eight years, we have been developing the capacity to provide services, so property management and asset management have become the focus of our team. While these are two pillars, we continue to do brokerage and consultancy for other companies, and we have partnered with foreign investment fund in real estate development. We started 2020 with extremely positive expectations for the rebound of the construction and real estate sector. Now, we have to reckon with the global challenge of COVID-19, though we hope that once it is over, the sector can pick up from where it left off.
Natasha Manji-Shariff DIRECTOR, PAM GOLDING PROPERTIES MOZAMBIQUE
WE HAVE BEEN operating in Mozambique as a franchise for over seven years, offering a comprehensive range of property services across various real estate sectors residential sales and lettings, commercial sales and lettings, property management, as well as advisory. Our target is homeowners and property owners, ranging from companies to individuals. We are widely seen as a luxury brand, though we do adapt to the market, and accordingly you can find properties in Mozambique as affordable as USD50,000 all the way up to over USD1 million. Overall, I am fairly satisfied with our performance, which has experienced YoY growth of about 20-25%, even though Mozambique is a small and informal market. There has been some progress recently to formalize the real estate sector through the formation of the Mozambican Association of Real Estate Companies, but it will take time for the market to understand the advantages that an experienced agent offers. We work with the client and strongly believe in the importance of having an exclusive mandate. Some homeowners mistakenly choose an open mandate when selling, believing that the more agents working on the sale, the better the chance of success. After the state of emergency has been lifted, we anticipate some pent-up demand and maybe even the return of speculative buyers. There will be more sellers in the market who will require the services of skilled and qualified sales negotiators to get the best value for their assets. Mozambique will remain a buyer’s market for the foreseeable future.