By Dipo Olowookere
Thursday, August 24, 2017, has been pencilled down for Africa’s premier real estate competition, the African Property Investment Awards (API Awards), to be launched at this year’s API Summit & Expo 2017 at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The awards will recognise innovation and outstanding achievement across the entire property industry whilst providing distinguished developers, suppliers and owners working in Sub-Saharan Africa (Excl South Africa) with a platform to showcase their best projects and services.
Entries for the API Awards opened today, Tuesday, May 30, 2017 and it is expected to close on July 15, 2017.
API Events have proven their commitment to the African property industry, hosting successful and insightful summits for the last 8 years. As an independent organisation offering broad coverage of the African real estate sector, API Events have a reputation for fostering education, discussion and knowledge sharing throughout the industry, making them the ideal hosts for these prestigious awards.
Looking back on the last decade, there have been notable achievements in the development of real estate on the continent. Growth in the sector has highlighted the important role both local and regional investors and developers play in the industry. With this in mind, API Events has moved to introduce an awards platform that is both reputable and widely respected in order to recognize these achievements, as well as the distinction and quality of these contributions.
“With these awards, API Events hopes to not only encourage industry players to continue to achieve these same levels in regard to both industry standards and expectations, but also to raise the development standards across the industry in future. As the market evolves we want to ensure that all stakeholders strive to achieve excellence, and at the same time recognise those who are delivering on pioneering developments in Africa’s often tough development environments,” says Kfir Rusin, API Events Managing Director.
“As the continent’s pre-eminent property investment summit, it is fitting that API Summit & Expo should recognise excellence by giving awards to the best of the best. The prestige of an API Award will undoubtedly bring an increase in quality in all fields in the property industry in Africa,” adds jury panellist and owner of the W Hospitality Group, Trevor Ward.
The panel of judges will bring together a number of distinguished industry leaders from across the continent, each member boasting a variety of expertise and experience.
Joining Trevor Ward on the jury panel will be Gerhard Zeelie, Head Real Estate Finance: Rest of Africa at Standard Bank, (RSA), Joao Terlica, Managing Director at Sagaci Research (Nigeria), David Kinyua, Director at Esham Park Group (Kenya), Elizabeth Wangeci Chege, Chief Executive Officer at WEB Limited & Chairperson of the Kenya Green Building Society (Kenya), Godfrey Tapela, Director at IFC (Kenya), Wafula Nabutola, Regional Director of RICS (East Africa), Jenny Luesby, Managing Director of African Laughter (Kenya), Kaisi Kalambo, President for the Architects Association of Tanzania (Tanzania) and Malcolm Horne, Group CEO of The Broll Property Group.
The judging panel will critically assess all entries in Best Retail Development, Best Mixed-Use Development, Best Commercial High-rise Development, Best Architectural Design, Best Green Building in Sub Saharan Africa, Best Hotel Development, and Best Housing Development categories.
Within these categories, jury members will base their final decision on a wide range of criteria with specific focus on project location; infrastructure and transport access; integration into the environment; originality of the concept; technical and architectural quality; services offered; sensitivity to the local community; innovation; sustainability; corporate staff involvement; response to market demands; financial performance; occupancy; and the impact of the project on economic convergence.
“There hasn’t been a greater opportunity in Africa to transform the construction industry than now. Sharing of information and best practice across the continent is prevalent therefore, the API Awards will provide a platform to honour projects that seek to lead on development standards. Ultimately, what we build today will form the Africa of tomorrow,” says jury member, Elizabeth Wangeci Chege.
Adedapo Adesanya