North Africa slowdown

Country: Egypt; Morocco; Tunisia

26 November 2008

Some tourism based developments in North Africa are facing troubled times as the regional property markets face a slowdown, proving that no one is immune from the global financial situation.

Giles Wickham, a negotiator for Winkworth International in London told Propertywire.com that there is simply no interest from buyers.

“Morocco is very dead. There is no interest. Things are plodding along and we are just hoping for the market to pick up again,” he explained.

The major investors buying property in Egypt, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia are from the Middle East and even they are becoming more cautious because of the credit crunch.

“North Africa will continue to be of interest to Gulf investors. However, a lot of funds are looking very carefully at their strategy and will be reassessing risk. The risk profiles are changing in some of these markets,” said Jonathan Hull, executive director of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) capital markets for property adviser CBRE in London.

However, publicly developers are upbeat. “We do not plan to make any fundamental changes in our current business activities even though the general property market is experiencing difficulties,” said Peter Riddoch, chief executive of Dubai-based Damac Properties, which is building the upmarket $7bn (£4.5bn), Hyde Park villa project in Cairo.

As is Emaar: “North Africa is a promising market and like much of the Middle East has been able to largely withstand the global financial crisis because of growth,” said a spokesman. “Our projects in Morocco and Egypt are principally led by tourism, and as such they have strong growth potential. Work on our projects is progressing as per schedule,” he added.

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