James Whitmee

Currently this may be the most expensive real estate location in the world. Office quoting rents have surged again and are at $200 /sq m /month (quoting). Residential rents are around $20,000-25,000 /month for a relatively modest ex-pat villa rising to $40,000. I have been doing a residential study and purchase costs are in the order of $6,000-7,000 /sq m = $1.5 million for a small house. In fact they are building massive houses of up to 850 sq m, so we are talking about $5 million +. There is a penthouse under construction in the centre of the city which is rumoured to have a price tag of $10 million. Here are some photographs I have taken over the last couple of days.

                                                                        Bay of Luanda

                                                                  Communist Monument

                                                         Slums on clifftop to west of the city

                                                                 Side street in city centre