A UK-registered investment company is planning to spend $1.2bn on the construction of 170 hotels in Angola over the next three years.
GoldenPeaks Capital Holdings signed a contract with the Banco de Poupança e Crédito (BPC) and the Angola Business Corporation agency earlier this month in Luanda (pictured).
The plan is to build two- and three-star hotels in all 18 provinces of Angola over the next three years.
Paixão Júnior, the governor of BPC, said his bank would act as a financial intermediary. The capital for the projects would come entirely from GoldenPeaks Capital Holdings.
The hotels, each of which will have 50 rooms, will be designed by the Lisbon-based architect Capinha Lopes, and the first phase of 40 hotels will begin this year. Two further phases will follow, and construction will end in 2018.
Pedro Mutindi, the minister of Hotels and Tourism, who signed the building permit for the hotels, said the project was "a renewal of hope". He added that the 170 hotel units, each with 50 rooms will increase supply and provide accommodation for both domestic and foreign tourists.
GoldenPeaks Capital Holdings is registered in Guernsey but based in the Swiss town of Zug, and specialises in long-term investments.
One attraction for investors in hotels in Angola, an oil producer, is that the cost of living in Luanda is presently the highest in the world for ex-pats, according to the annual survey by consultant Mercer.
According to the Numbeo database, the cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the city is $3,500 a month.
Photograph: Luanda, the most expensive city on earth for visitors, largely because of the shortage of accommodation (Wikimedia Commons)
