The city administration in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa has announced the start of construction on 4,000 housing units by the local Gift Real Estate under the first phase of a public-private partnership (PPP) programme.

The project entails building 3,540 housing units in towers with a height of 14-22 floors, 460 shops, schools and other community facilities within the La Gare residential village development. Construction is expected to take three years.

Once the first phase is complete, Gift Real Estate will work with its sister companies and local and international partners on the design and financing of an additional 8,000 homes.

“We continue to work to make Addis Ababa a comfortable city for working and living by implementing new options to solve the housing problem in accordance with the law and procedures,” said Adanech Abiebie, mayor of Addis Ababa, in a 27 April social media post.

ዛሬ በመንግስት እና በግል አጋርነት መርሃ ግብር ከጊፍት ሪል እስቴት ጋር የ4 ሺሕ መኖሪያ ቤቶችን ግንባታ አስጀምረናል።በመጀመሪያ ዙር ግንባታቸውን ያስጀመርናቸው 4 ሺሕ መኖሪያ ቤቶች ከ14 እስከ 22 ወለል ያላቸው ዘመናዊ ህንጻዎች ሲሆኑ፣ የግንባታ… pic.twitter.com/RjlqSoKTct

— Adanech Abiebie (@AdanechAbiebie) April 27, 2024

La Gare residential village is a masterplanned community by UAE developer Eagle Hills, located in the heart of Addis Ababa near the city's former train station.

La Gare residential village projectSource: La Gare project brochure

The mixed-use development is spread across an approximate area of 360,000 square metres, with more than 4,000 residences in towers as well as commercial, hospitality, retail and leisure facilities surrounding a park.

The Gift Real Estate PPP is one of several projects being pushed forward by the authorities as part of efforts to alleviate the housing shortage in Addis Ababa.

In early April, the local Ovid Real Estate launched construction of a 60,000-unit mass housing development on a 558-hectare site provided by the city of Addis Adaba.

Under the 70:30 PPP arrangement, the developer will hand over 30% of the units to the government for affordable housing. In addition to the 60,000 homes, Gelan Gorra City will include schools, health centres, entertainment and sports facilities and business centres. According to the mayor’s office it will create 250,000 job opportunities for residents.

In mid-March, ConstructAfrica reported that the Ministry of Finance was planning to develop 10,000 housing units in the Yeka and Lemi-Kura subcities of Addis Ababa through 14 projects structured as PPPs.

As a precursor to rolling out the 14 projects, the finance ministry invited consulting firms to express interest in conducting feasibility studies for the Chaka and Tiyit Bet housing development to be implemented as a PPP. The study is being supported with funding from the African Development Bank and the deadline for submissions was 2 April.

The Chaka and Tiyit Bet scheme is planned to serve as the model for future PPP housing development projects. The feasibility study is expected to take four months to complete.

At the AFSIC - Investing in Africa event in London in October 2023, the Ethiopian Investment Commission revealed that the government was planning a US$2.4 billion affordable housing PPP programme to be implemented in Addis Ababa to deliver about 80,000 low and middle-income housing units.