James Whitmee

I am in Nouakchott in Mauritania looking at the real estate market across all sectors. I have mainly been focused on the central city area of Tévrah Zeïna (E-Nord, F-Nord, Ilot C and Las Palmas), but have also been out on the Route de Nouadhibou where there are major development plans, particularly by investors from Qatar.

In terms of the residential market, this experienced a massive boost in the mid-2000s on the back of an anticipated oil boom in Mauritania. This brought foreign companies such as Woodside into Nouakchott, with large requirements for ex-pat housing and hotel rooms.

The oil boom never happened, or rather the reserves proved to be much smaller than anticipated. As a result, landlords found themselves with vacant properties, but in general have been unable to accept the fact that the supply-demand balance should have resulted in rental/value reduction.

In terms of supply, the stock is relatively high quality by West African standards, and in some top-end new development I even saw some “green” issues being addressed – solar energy production and water recycling.

Demand for the best properties is mainly from the diplomatic and aid sectors. There is some international corporate demand but it is relatively limited. Whilst Mauritania is now experiencing something of a mining boom, there is disappointment locally that the Canadian company, Kinross, is keeping most of its staff off-shore in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands (which is confusing in itself because Las Palmas is also an area of Nouakchott).

It is also important to note that that when it comes to the diplomatic market, many of the embassies actually have developed their chancery compounds for staff accommodation. France, Germany and Spain all have significant housing elements to their embassy compounds.

Here are some photos that I took today in Nouakchott city centre. The one on the left is the best office building in town (approx. $11-12 /sq m /month), and on the right is the Saudi Mosque.