Three Chinese construction companies proposed the allocation of over two million sq.m. of land in Addis for what will become the single largest real estate venture involving the construction of 200 high rise buildings in the metropolis, senior government officials told The Reporter.

The Ministry of Works and Urban Development, in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy to Ethiopia, has earlier on selected the three companies for "their expertise in the world's booming real estate developments of China".

The Chinese companies will, beginning the first months of the next Ethiopian fiscal year, start the construction of the 200 high rise buildings twenty to thirty stories tall, according to these officials. The owner of the project is the recently instituted Ethiopian Housing Development Corporation, whose establishment was endorsed by parliament a few months ago.

Established to become a profit-oriented organization and help stabilize the real estate market in the country, the corporation will independently run its operation.

Presently, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is negotiating with the representative of the corporation to lend it seed money for the project through bonds or direct loan, according to informed sources.

The skyscrapers project is expected to require over ten billion birr of financing, where the corporation is trying to secure at least one billion birr for a period of one year to launch the initial phase of the project from the CBE. The corporation will commence its operation after securing about four billion birr, of which one billion birr is registered in paid up capital.

The budget proposal the corporation requires is on the other hand submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED), which currently is evaluating the document.

The other source of financing for the giant real estate project is expected to come from the Chinese companies themselves which will undertake the project.  

The buildings, which will be constructed in the heart of the city and its peripheries, will sport residential apartments, malls and other business outlets which the corporation may lease, rent or sell to the would-be service. Each building will have two elevators.

The project is expected to take five to ten years' time to materialize with each building projected to be completed in 24 to 30 months.

The apartments which the buildings will house are targeted to serve the middle and high income group, including the diaspora.

The corporation will appropriate plots of lands in the possession of the government housing agency and other federal government entities. The pertinent government bodies are scheduled to finalize the land allocation before the end of the current fiscal year.

The Chinese companies will carry out both design works and the construction. 

The names of the three Chinese construction firms were withheld for the purpose of confidentiality. The Reporter, however, has learnt that one of three construction firms is a company named Shaghai Construction Group, which currently constructs the Gottera spaghetti road junction in Addis. 

By Hayal Alemayehu