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Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Africa?

economist.com

141–150 of 174 posts

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

#141

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…

Barack Obama discussed this culture quite a bit in his first book, Dreams from my Father. He went to Africa as a young man for the first time, and it provides quite an interesting look at what modern Kenyan life was like at the time.

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

#142
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…

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't leaving rebar exposed like that lead to corrosion and a weaker structure? Seems like leaving rebar out in the open - literally the top of the building with no shielding - make the foundation for the new floors dangerous?

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

#143

> 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…

The problem is not just lack of liquidity. If that was the case, the simple solution would be to just print a bunch more money. Then people would have more cash laying around, more of it would end up in banks, which would allow banks to extend more credit.

However, this is unlikely to be the root of the problem. More likely is that the national economy is simply not productive enough to reach the production levels needed to enjoy prosperity similar to the one observed in developed countries. What that means is that on the one hand, too much of existing production is going into consumption, and too little into investment. Instead of building more houses, they should be building more cement plants, more building material factories etc, and the same goes for other sectors of economy too (eg if agriculture mechanization allows fewer people to work on food production, more people will be available to work on house construction). Of course, given the already low levels of production and consumption, it’s hard to reduce consumption even further, but then again, prosperous western countries used to be just as poor in the past, and they managed to pull themselves by their bootstraps anyway. In many ways, African countries today have it easier, as the knowledge of what to do and how already exists.

In addition to too scarce investment, a second major factor is differences in productivity on individual worker level. The sources of these differences are really diverse: they range from bad people management practices, through use of inefficient work techniques, higher human error rates resulting in more time wasted on useless products, and many more. This is a harder problem, and there are no simple solutions, but on the bright side, the longer economy is stable, the more companies have time to mature and refine their practices, so this is improving on its own over time.

And lastly, there is often problem of bad institutional practices, like excessive taxation, excessive regulation, government corruption etc. It’s much easier to build a cement factory when you don’t have to care much about environmental regulations, and this is exactly the regulatory regime that countries like Britain, US or China enjoyed when they were climbing themselves out of poverty. Similarly, there is more money for investment, if the government is taking less of it. This sounds like something easy to change, but in practice the institutional inertia, combined with copying Western practices as of right now rather than as of when they were of similar development levels makes it harder than it should be.

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

#144
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…

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't leaving rebar exposed like that lead to corrosion and a weaker structure? Seems like leaving rebar out in the open - literally the top of the building with no shielding - make the foundation for the new floors dangerous?

Why does the integrity of the future floors worry you when the intent was never to add future floors? The intent was simply to make it appear as there was a plan of future floors.

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

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in Spain. Paperwork surrounding a newly build house costs a lot, up to 25% of the whole project, so in many instances people decide to build illegally. Nobody touches them as it would be a massive political uproar if any ruling political party tried to clean the situation up. Also, if no neighbors 'denounce' an illegal building, it becomes legal after 4 years or so.

Hem, not... this is not how it works in Spain. Maybe a local exception, but not the rule. The law is very clear about it.

If you know some locals who own apartments in the metropolitan areas, many will be open about their different modifications they have done without proper permits, because it's so damn hard to actually get the permits.

Yes, the law is very clear about a lot of things, but what happens in reality is often not so clear always.

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

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Africa needs more factories, more mills, more kilns, more technical know how. Also less exploitation by industrialized nations and more leaders who want to improve their country's infrastructure rather than just get into a position of power so they can be a rich king. Western nations will invest in Africa if it gets them something... minerals, oil, other resources. They don't invest in Africa's people, they invest i…

Actually, what those African nations need is a tiny enclave, a special economic zone, that has the rule of law and is kept stable at all costs where western nations can invest as much as they please, while leaving the rest of the country alone so that the rest of the country can catch up to the standard of living of that enclave, without western influence.

Can you give examples of where this has been tried before. Also, this sounds like how we were colonized the first time. Giving enclaves to the French and the British that became staging posts for full colonization

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

#147
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common across the developing world. Not a lot of people out of our close to 8 billion can afford such a huge expense in one go.

Even in the US this is the case. Government regulation has outlawed people building incrementally in most cases, so people who can't afford to buy a house generally have to rent forever. Building a house is usually more expensive than buying a similar house, due to building codes, permitting costs, and costs of utility build-out.

I would imagine that purchasing the land is at least as much a hurdle in most places. I suspect the land my house sits on is worth some small multiple of what the structure is worth.

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

#148

> The lack of liquidity in the financial system then further limits what banks can lend to builders. The massive credit expansion is exactly what you don't want if you want to ease the housing market. The Economist got almost everything in this story wrong. I have personal experience of being to Nigeria a few times on infrastructure subcontract projects. The predominant portion of those abandoned construction sites a…

> Africa needs more factories, more mills, more kilns, more technical know how.

Building capital requires financing. Financing depends on trust and stability. From your description, it seems like the issue is an ineffective legal system that allows widespread fraud.

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

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, what those African nations need is a tiny enclave, a special economic zone, that has the rule of law and is kept stable at all costs where western nations can invest as much as they please, while leaving the rest of the country alone so that the rest of the country can catch up to the standard of living of that enclave, without western influence.

Can you give examples of where this has been tried before. Also, this sounds like how we were colonized the first time. Giving enclaves to the French and the British that became staging posts for full colonization

I think Hong Kong is a pretty good example.

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, what those African nations need is a tiny enclave, a special economic zone, that has the rule of law and is kept stable at all costs where western nations can invest as much as they please, while leaving the rest of the country alone so that the rest of the country can catch up to the standard of living of that enclave, without western influence.

Can you give examples of where this has been tried before. Also, this sounds like how we were colonized the first time. Giving enclaves to the French and the British that became staging posts for full colonization

Well, if you see any pasty Englishmen with pith helmets and Martini-Henries show up at the dock, just turn them away. Britain's power projection isn't what it once was.
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