JULIUS BIZIMUNGU

Kigali Heights Development has won the award for the ‘Africa Property of the Year’ in the ‘Best Mixed-Use Development’ category, a statement from the ongoing Africa Property Investment (API) Summit & Expo 2017 has shown.

According to the organisers, the Africa Property Investment (API) Awards recognises innovation and outstanding achievement across the entire property industry in Africa in seven categories. This is the first ever awards to be held by API.

Like other projects, Kigali Heights was judged on a wide range of criteria including location, infrastructure and transport access, integration into the environment, originality of the concept, as well as technical and architectural quality.

Projects were also judged on 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.

“The calibre of entries was world class and the judges had a challenging time selecting the winners, nevertheless they managed to hone in on the best projects,” reads the statement in part.

Kigali Heights Development is a modern commercial complex that provides retail office spaces. The facility is a host to some of the big retail brands and banking institutions in the country, region and beyond.

“This award is great honor to us, our City and our country. We worked hard, quite hard not just to be awarded but to give Kigali and Rwanda the best it deserves. I’m glad our efforts have bore fruit,” said Dennis Karera, the Chairman of Kigali Heights Development Company.

Other projects which were awarded include the Kumasi City Hall in Ghana which scooped the award for the Best Retail Development, Accra Financial Centre also in Ghana (Best Commercial High-Rise Development), Garden City in Nairobi (Best Green Building in Sub-Saharan Africa), Strand Hotel in Namibia (Best Hotel Development), Karibu Homes in Kenya (Best Housing Development), and Rain Torres in Mozambique which received the award for the Best Architectural Design.

Meanwhile, the API summit convened property developers, suppliers and owners from across sub-Saharan Africa, who also got the opportunity to showcase their best projects and services.

The summit is taking place at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa and it ends Friday.
REPORT: NEW TIMES