David Hundeyin has called for emergency ordinances that can prevent foreign capital from artificially inflating Africa’s urban real estate markets and ensure that land and housing remain accessible to the people who call these cities home.
He made the call on Monday when he took to his X account handle.
According to him, in a worrying trend, many African nations are facing a surge of foreign capital flooding into their urban residential real estate markets, creating a dangerous economic bubble.
As foreign investors pour money into large-scale construction projects in cities from Kampala to Accra to Lusaka, they are not only distorting local markets but also pushing housing costs out of reach for the average citizen, he said.
Rather than contributing to sustainable economic growth, these investments are inflating property prices to levels comparable with global hubs like Dubai, Shanghai, and Dallas. The real danger, however, lies in how these investments are transforming local real estate markets into artificial, closed-off economies, inaccessible to the very people who live there. Many neighborhoods in African cities are increasingly populated by empty, high-rise buildings — glass-and-concrete structures meant for the wealthy, but with little to no one actually living in them.
The impact of this trend is already being felt. In places like Lagos, Nigeria, skyrocketing rents have reached levels so high they are now comparable to the country’s entire per-capita income. These inflated prices are forcing residents to relocate to smaller cities, such as Abeokuta and Ibadan — cities that may soon face the same fate as real estate developers move in with their vacant luxury projects.
The problem is not a result of genuine supply-and-demand dynamics but rather the result of speculative construction and money laundering practices. Instead of creating affordable housing or jobs, these investments are hollowing out urban areas and making them increasingly inaccessible. This phenomenon is not development—it mirrors a form of modern colonization, where the real estate market becomes a tool for foreign exploitation rather than local empowerment.
