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Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

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Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#71
My landlord here in a wealthy area of Mexico is supposedly extremely well-off (and the main house looks somewhat mansion-like from the street), yet the back part of the house that you can't see from the street is halfway finished. Hopefully he is going to wait until my lease is up before he really picks up the construction again. I think that's what he said.

Taxes might have something to do with it. But also Mexico is so poor, I think there are just a lot of cases where people just don't have the money to finish a project right away or even tear down an old building. So it's just almost normal to see derelict of half-finished buildings in certain areas. My theory is that it therefore becomes sort of customary and acceptable to leave things like that and so it is more common. Even in cases where people could afford to finish more quickly.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#72

> What is going on? Start with the lack of finance. Many Senegalese developers struggle to obtain loans without hefty collateral. Instead, some start building, hoping to tempt buyers to put down deposits on flats and then use that to help finance the rest of the building. But buyers are wary of making a commitment based on a construction site. These unfinished projects often tie up prime land, too. > For Senegalese h…

Without effective retail finance, which is not possible without other things in place first, which are not possible without a baseline of functioning governance, there really is no 'organized' solution that's going to work.

You can't have well run banks without commercial law, you can't have commercial law without great schools, law schools, good legislators, a judiciary, acting in good faith and 'not corrupt'.

Without a systematic, organized solution, it might be worth teaching people skills and abilities that serve to create value without the overhead - for example, carpentry, masonry etc..

My grandfather and family built their own home, their own cottage, installed all of the plumbing themselves and this is in a 'modern nation' less than 100 years ago, and it was not uncommon.

However - they were highly skilled craftspeople, with knowledge and abilities passed down from generation to generation, information that made it 'across the Atlantic' from Europe into the new world without state organs, schools etc. to do so.

We have a hard time today grasping that, we kind of expect 'the government' to make the right trade schools, colleges and universities available for 'where all the knowledge is' but it was never really that way.

Without extra currency floating around to facilitate loans etc, then it's the labour of communities i.e. family, friends children. Amish and Mennonite communities are strong examples of this kind of behaviour, not that they are necessarily the perfect example, but you can see it in action.

There's so much focus on 'top down governance' approaches in these areas because it's the issue that our own governments can speak to in terms of money, grants, investment, and actors on the other side can sign agreements talk about plans etc..

But in reality it's probably worth sometimes looking at such systems as not very governed at all, and developing things that work very well on the local level.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#73
post #6

I have no idea if it is true, but, in Egypt, my guide (who I will say was wonderfully knowledgeable on historic matters), stated that the reason many properties had rebar extending upwards (e.g., it looked like there were more stories to be added) was related to tax policy. I forget the full detail of her explanation, but there was some different kind of tax treatment if the building was "finished," so there were a n…

This would never be possible in the UK. Rainwater and sea spray would corrode any exposed rebar away within a few years. In fact, I wonder whether it is such a good idea to build on rebar that has been exposed to the environment for an extended period of time.

One could always paint the exposed rebar to protect it.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#75
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would never be possible in the UK. Rainwater and sea spray would corrode any exposed rebar away within a few years. In fact, I wonder whether it is such a good idea to build on rebar that has been exposed to the environment for an extended period of time.

But if there is never good intention to actually "finish" the construction, then it wouldn't matter much.

True, but still, moisture can creep in where rebar exits the concrete, and lead to rebar corrosion inside the structure. Less of a problem in Egypt than in the UK or similar climates.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#76

I've heard quite extraordinary stories related to the "grabby kin" problem. Entirely hearsay, but at the same time too common. Most of them keep to a similar theme, that is a combination of entitlement to resources held by your relatives and a lack of emphasis on long-term gains. Probably half of these stories involve someone just getting a small business off the ground and losing it because relatives think they're e…

Indeed, this is the theme of Ousmane Sembène’s film Mandabi that recently got a nice release from Criterion: a Senegalese man gets sent some money from a relative working in France, but his family, neighbors, and local officials all demand a slice of it, and ultimately he not only loses the money order, he loses everything.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#77
post #35

> What is going on? Start with the lack of finance. Many Senegalese developers struggle to obtain loans without hefty collateral. Instead, some start building, hoping to tempt buyers to put down deposits on flats and then use that to help finance the rest of the building. But buyers are wary of making a commitment based on a construction site. These unfinished projects often tie up prime land, too. > For Senegalese h…

> Instead, people break ground knowing they do not yet have the funds to finish. This is pretty common actually. You build one room, make it livable, and then build the next room, then the next, and when you run out of land, start on the second story. The end result is that a young family with children can own their own home, and live within their means immediately, rather than spend a decade renting and saving towar…

Reminds me of a documentary I watched about opal miners in Australia who live underground (in nice houses, just underground) - when they want a new bedroom they just get a jackhammer out and hew one.

Coober Pedy is one of those places I'd kinda like to visit someday.

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#78
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how people can live in such buildings then? I understand about poorer countries with lack of regulations, but have not thought that's possible in Europe. Government should not allow anyone to live or operate in such buildings if they're not up to code and are not finished. How people can get mortgages for such things, or how business can register their offices if building is permanently "under construction"?

Europe is very diverse. From "what are we going to do with all this oil money" Norway to "there are shacks with people in them" Bulgaria.

>"there are shacks with people in them" Bulgaria.

The what now?

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#79

I've heard quite extraordinary stories related to the "grabby kin" problem. Entirely hearsay, but at the same time too common. Most of them keep to a similar theme, that is a combination of entitlement to resources held by your relatives and a lack of emphasis on long-term gains. Probably half of these stories involve someone just getting a small business off the ground and losing it because relatives think they're e…

Basically UBI...

No, nearly the opposite. Look up the meaning of the word "universal".

Re: Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

#80
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like an urban legend. If the local people want the building, why not guide the helpers so they have a proper building from the start, rather than waste their own time building something shoddy, tearing it down, and building it again? My Western viewpoint also thinks there isn't much "spec" that poorer countries follow, maybe just: if it looks like it won't collapse, it's good enough, and hopefully young people…

That is a fairly rudimentary viewpoint. People who've put up tens or hundreds of buildings in their lifetime are clearly going to be substantially more experienced and talented at doing that process than you, I or any random teenager. There's so much more work to creating a functioning abode than just evaluating 'will it collapse'. Would you trust a random youth to put up your house?

But the random teenagers (my guess is it'd be more like twenty-somethings) would have the locals' guidance and supervision, surely?

And it would be a lot more efficient for the locals to use the manpower properly (with supervision) rather than letting them "play" and then having to tear down what they built.

At the worst case, the helpers could just be made to carry bricks and wooden planks from 1 spot to the other, and they'd still feel that they contributed.

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