Ruairi Moriarty

I am in Lubumbashi, in the far south-east corner of the DRC, on the border with Zambia. Lubumbashi is situated on what may be the richest copper belt in the world. There is a population of in excess of 1.8 million, with a growing middle class. The business cycle here is closely linked with the price of copper; at present mines are once again reinvesting and rents appear to be rising rapidly. Daily flights from the capital Kinshasa (further from Lubumbashi than Johannesburg), Johannesburg, Nairobi and Addis Ababa are all reportedly full.

There is an extremely limited supply of good quality office space at present in Lubumbashi. However supply is anticipated to increase dramatically within the next 2 to 3 years, with the part completion of the mixed use 300 hectare Luano City scheme currently underway on the approach road to the airport. This high specification scheme is anticipated to attract the major mining operations, with some coercion in play from the Katanga Governor to have the major mining operations invest in infrastructure projects, as well as to facilitate the orderly development of Lubumbashi through such master-planned schemes.

In the meantime much of the office activity involves businesses taking colonial era villas and apartments and converting them. We estimate office rents in Lubumbashi's Central Business Districts are set to rise. Currently we would assess CBD office space and on surrounding primary routes to be in the order of USD 25 - 35 /sq m /month. We would assess prime residential rentals averaging USD 3-4,000 /month for a 3-4 bed villa and USD 4-5,000 /month for a 4-5 bed villa (with a USD 20-30 /sq m /month average cost).

                                                       Lubumbashi's Central Business District

                                                   Cityscape showing Lubumbashi's low-rise nature

                                                   Spoil of Ruashi mine, just east of Lubumbashi's CBD