Broll to present East African property market outlook at East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) 2021

Leading Pan-African professional real-estate services provider Broll Property Group will present its highly-anticipated market outlook at the eighth annual East Africa Property Investment (EAPI) Summit from 5 to 9 July. Broll is a long-time sponsor of Africa Property Investment (API) Events, the leading event and thought leadership platform in African real estate. With a presence in over 16 countries, the Group is at the forefront of shaping the nascent East African property industry by using the EAPI platform to share insights from more mature property markets.

“The entry of new and more sophisticated investors within the real-estate sector means all players have to scale up their offering and invest in proptech if they are to remain relevant and create real value for their clients, especially in the property and facilities management space and retail leasing and management,” reveals Moses Lutalo, Managing Director of Broll Uganda.

Another highlight will be a research presentation, co-sponsored by API Events, on attracting investment in the affordable housing sector in Kenya. This will be co-presented by Jess Cleland, COO Outside of SA, Valuations & Intel, and Vivian Ombwayo, Director of Research and Valuation at Broll Kenya.

A long-time sponsor of EAPI, Broll Uganda has been active in that country’s real-estate market for about five years. Its main focus is on occupier services, facilities management, property management, broking, retail leasing and management and advisory and consultancy services. “Opportunities abound within the occupier service space, ranging from asset to estate management as well as project management as businesses strive to optimise their real estate assets,” comments Lutalo.

Opportunities also exist in traditional service lines such as facilities management for new niche asset classes like data centres, healthcare centres and student accommodation etc. Another driver is implementing new workplace protocols due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and, most importantly, adopting the IFRS 16 accounting standards. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) recently proposed an extension of the application period of the amendment to IFRS 16 to help lessees account for Covid-19 related rent concessions.

In late June, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni placed the country under lockdown in the face of an unprecedented increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths due to the Delta variant. “We had started seeing activity within the commercial office space, retail and residential, mainly on the back of key partner agreements being signed for oil and gas pipeline development,” notes Lutalo.

Broll property Group has over the years been developing its capability to service major oil and gas players from a risk management and facilities management perspective, as well as real estate services underpinned by its sector focus ISO certifications and past experience. “We believe Broll will be a service provider of choice for the key players in this important sector,” adds Lutalo.

Warehousing and fulfilment centre space for owner occupation had also picked up significantly and stalled project had commenced again. Demand for expert housing had picked as well as office space requirements. “All of this obviously is going to slow down following the new lockdown measures, but my presentation will give an outlook for what the future holds, especially as Broll’s strategy is to be forward-looking and future-focused beyond Covid-19.”