CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, has invested $30m in Momentum Africa Real Estate Fund (MAREF), an African commercial real estate development joint venture between Momentum Global Investment Management and Eris Property Group.

Murray Grant, CDC’s Managing Director, Intermediated Equity, said: “Despite significant demand, real estate development in most of Sub-Saharan Africa is limited by the availability of construction finance, and the lack of experienced, institutional development platforms.” 

“Our investment in MAREF will help them to increase the stock of high-quality real estate in Africa, bringing economic opportunity and job creation to the continent. We will work closely with the fund to help them raise standards across Africa’s real estate development sector and bring much-needed skills to new markets, thereby supporting the growth of local developers and contractors.”

The investment is designed to support the development of greenfield industrial, residential and commercial real estate opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa.  

CDC’s investment has brought MAREF’s total fundraising to $206m.

Momentum Property Opportunities Fund will consist of special property opportunities developed by Eris Property Group specifically for this fund. 

MAREF’s focus is on eight countries in the main areas that have shown consistent economic growth in excess of 5% for the past years.

MAREF has a strong focus on countries where CDC has limited real estate exposure including, but not limited to, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania. 

The fund objective is to achieve income and capital growth by investing in developments and holding these until the target returns are achieved. 

The projects are de-risked through inter alia, due diligence on land, a guarantee on project costing from the developer, minimum pre-let requirement and obtaining a term sheet for funding.

David Lashbrook, Head of Africa Real Estate at Momentum Global Investment Management, said: “CDC’s considerable African investment expertise and its added focus on business integrity and environmental and social issues has helped us to improve our investment process for the benefit of our investors and the projects that we’re backing.”