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Michael Tome Business Reporter

MASHONALAND Holdings managing director Gibson Mapfidza has cited tourism infrastructure, student accommodation and out of Central Business District (CBD) office space as lucrative areas for property investments going into the future.

He revealed this while addressing senior local and regional real estate investors, developers and practitioners at the ZimReal Property Investment Forum held in the capital yesterday.

While speaking at the event Mr Mapfidza pointed out vast opportunities in development of out of CBD office space.

“The first one I look at is tourism infrastructure development, we have seen a lot of interest in Victoria Falls and other towns with natural endowments around the country that do not possess enough quality infrastructure like key roads and hospitals.

“In Harare, business is moving out of the CBD and the preferred areas (out of the CBD) which don’t have upgrades in infrastructure so going forward I think it is a key investment area.

“Also the number of universities in the country is growing. We now have about eighteen but students do not have enough accommodation, so I think going forward we need to have a lot of investment in student accommodation not just hostels but complementing infrastructure like water, sewer, electricity and as said digitalization is a key issue so technology is going to be key going forward,” said Mr Mapfidza.

HTI Consulting of South Africa chief executive officer Wayne Troughton was optimistic that Zimbabwe’s real estate sector was easy to resuscitate given the renewed interest in the country since the introduction of a new government in 2017.

“Zimbabwean Infrastructure development has ability to turn around very quickly especially from tourism hotel development perspective.

“The country has good quality skills and there has been a lot of interest in Zimbabwe since the change of government,” said Mr Troughton.

The one-day forum is a unique platform for real estate practitioners together with their public sector counterparts to develop strategic roadmap to stimulate economic growth through property investment and development.

Zimbabwe’s real estate is characterized by high demand and a corresponding low supply – confirming that the market has always been very active.