Challenges and Prospects of Foreign Real Estate Investors in Ethiopia

Housing is a significant issue in determining a countrys development both in developing and developed states both in the urban as well as rural areas. Housing can be considered as both economic and social responsibilities of safeguarding members of a society have a home to live in. Among different policies and strategies developed by government the Urban Development Policy and the Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) strategy, have the objectives of encouraging the role of urban areas in the overall national development. To address the basic research objectives a cross sectional survey design using qualitative methodologies of data collection were employed. Finally, Among different challenges that affect foreign real estate developers faced in their investment activities were Legal challenges that foreign real estate investors faced is there is no legally designed regulation in Ethiopia, institutional challenges related to the institutional arrangement and institutional support for investors Finance related challenges i. e. access to finance and poor housing financial institution in the state, Labor related problems even if there is large number of unskilled labor it is very difficult to get skilled professionals, Priority of the investment area real estate investment is not highly encouraged by the government of Ethiopia. This discourages the investors because different incentives that will be given to different foreign investors in other sector were not allowed.