Latest trends in outdoor furniture - also made in Tanzania
Smarten up your outdoor space – the latest furniture and deco ideas here. The new darling is dining al fresco.
Dining, lounging, sun bathing: creating a beach & country feeling on your terrace, in the backyard or your garden not only adds space but a renewed appreciation of nature to your life. In Zanzibar’s tropical climate, outdoor living is a given - even if perpetually challenged by heat, mosquitoes and other creepy creatures. “There’s nothing better than a sunset on your own terrace in Tanzania and even more so in Zanzibar”, knows Elmarie van Heerden, founder and owner of The Greem Room furniture company in Dar es Salaam. Even in post-Covid Europe “climate change has turned balconies into living rooms, too”, says Marianne Clichy, an interior designer from Paris. Here some fresh looks for 2022, from close to home and abroad.
#1 Dining al fresco
In previous years outdoor sofas brought the living room out in the open, in 2022 everybody’s darling is the outdoor dining room which invites you to socialise in fresh air. Weatherproof, elegant tables and upholstered armchairs steal the show from indoor tables. A beautiful African alternative are foldable safari chairs – just add extra pillows and consider a repaint. ”If space is limited, an outdoor sofa with side tables can double up as an eating and entertaining space”, suggests Elmarie von Heerden. ”Some clients love to eat al fresco year round in our warm climate.”
#2 Comeback of the sunbed
Is sunbathing still popular in 2022? Apparently yes. “It could be the longing for the familiar and loved ones that makes us relax on classic sun loungers in these turbulent times”, says designer Clichy. Many new sunbeds in natural or high-tech fabrics are on the market, but prices for quality brands are steep. A simple Zanzibar string bed topped with a foam layer in a washable white or dark blue plastic cover and fluffy white pillows is an alternative – but has to be kept superclean at all times, not to look tired. The same goes for a traditional carved bed either with mosquito netting or white linen curtains to substitute a chaise longue.
#3 Outdoor cocktail
Show your creativity by mixing materials; aluminium is hot and does not rust. Compliment bamboo chairs with a metal bench and a solid stone table – very much the “in”-thing. Think baraza! “Locally grown teak is our favourite for pieces to stand the test of time and weather”, says van Heerden. When it comes to “outdoor software “soft cushions and covers with UV resistant fabrics together with woven deep seating are the most popular”, the designer knows. All Green Room furniture is handmade in Dar es Salaam and can be customised to fit any space.
#4 Jiko deluxe
The trend towards outdoor dining poses a whole new challenge for storage space. In Fumba’s Horizon duplexes, for example, an outdoor kitchen is part of the deal, complete with a sink and a counter to place an induction cooker. A stylish sideboard and a fire bowl are must-haves for your 2022 terrace.
By Andrea Tapper
President stars in "Royal Tour" documentary film
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan showed guts, courage and acting talent as safari guide for her country.
The White House in Washington, Guggenheim Museum in New York and Youtube rolled out the red carpet for “Mama Samia'' playing the leading role in a one-hour tourism documentary about Tanzania and Zanzibar. Dubbed “The Royal Tour'' the film follows Hassan and award-winning US producer Peter Greenberg crisscrossing the country from a Taarab performance at the Old Fort (“Peter, do you hear the music?”) to a secret-location ivory storage with 45,000 confiscated elephant tusks.
“I like to watch lovers stroll arm in arm along the waterfront”, remarks the president while in Forodhani. About her new role she says: “I never expected to become president”, about her country: ”Some don’t believe a woman can take such a top job.” Visiting her home mosque in Kizimkazi , where she grew up among 14 siblings, she says “religion taught me about girls’ rights.”
In her soft, deep voice the Muslim nation leader, who changes costumes with every scene but never appears without headscarf or lipstick, is a remarkable narrator. In one scene she drives Greenberg around the Serengeti evoking Queen Elizabeth’s image during her land rover excursions in Scotland: ”It was the first time I drove a car in 15 years”, Hassan said in Washington. Greenberg has made five Royal Tour TV specials, only one more in Africa, in Rwanda.
Hassan’s daring performance sparked renewed support for Tanzania tourism in America. Earlier, on a visiting tour in France she had successfully renewed economic ties with Europe. And the Youtube response to the Royal Tour was unanimous anyway: "Proud of you, Madame President!“
Fumba’s newest residents are quite famous here: they are the founding couple and directors of Fumba Town. How it is to live in your own project, we asked Katrin Dietzold.
We see, you like reading?
Oh yes, I’m a real bookworm. I finish about three books per month; the last was “Lost paradise” by Abdulrazak Gurnah, very fascinating. We brought a big bookshelf into the new flat.
Did it fit? It’s very unusual for a boss to live in a place of only 63sqm...
It’s a 2-bedroom, and for the time being it’s perfect for us. The Mwangani flats don’t have large corridors, so the living room has much more space. Three of our kids attend school in Dar es Salaam where we have another home, our eldest daughter studies abroad. But even if we are all together, we’ll fit. We have placed a 140 cm wide bunk bed in the second bedroom plus a cot for the youngest.
What do you see first when you wake up in the morning?
From the second floor where we live we look straight into a growing park. It’s such joy to wake-up and watch the gardeners already busy attending to it and everything growing so fast.
How does it feel to finally live int the town you founded seven years ago?
It feels great. Some of our wonderful team might find it a bit strenuous though, because we suddenly see and hear everything live here…
Bad or good?
Not bad, in fact I believe our living here has led to some improvements already. We immediately felt, that power and internet needed more back-up. We have joined the lobby of residents now!
What do you like most about Fumba Town?
How lush the town’s greenery has become. Some was planted only three years ago and thanks to permaculture it’s blossoming. Next, we’ll turn dust roads into beautiful cobblestone streets; we have just bought our own machinery for that.
On the 13th of July 2022, The Minister of Water, Energy and Minerals, Zanzibar, Honorable Shaib H. Kaduara, paid a visit to Fumba Town, a project developed by CPS Zanzibar. Mr Tobias Dietzold, Chief of Product CPS, hosted the Minister, and he had a chance to take the Hon. Kaduara on a site visit around the development.
Both had a fruitful discussion on the connectivity and supply of utilities to the development which is among the biggest investments in Zanzibar. The Hon. Minister ensured the Government of Zanzibar will do everything in its power to guarantee high living standards and reliable infrastructure.
EXCLUSIVE: How Zanzibar will turn small islands into big-time holiday spots
19 small islands are to become prime luxury hideaways. THE FUMBA TIMES was given exclusive access to the amazing plans for the first of them, Pamunda A and B.
Meet Lukáš Šinogl, the new prince of – well, not Zamunda – but Pamunda. The 34-year old rightly feels like having entered a blockbuster, similar to Eddie Murphy as crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda, a Hollywood mega success in the 80s. Šinogl’s company, the owners of renowned 5-star Tulia Beach Resort in Pongwe Pwani, was given the much-fought-over green light to develop two tiny islands, Pamunda A and B, just south-west off the Fumba peninsula. Budget: 30-50 million dollars, coincidentally just what Hollywood spent on making Murphy’s “Coming to America”. The uninhabited Pamunda isles – until now merely coral rag bush country – are two of ten small islands recently handed over to investors by the government for a total of 261.5 million dollars in expected investments. “This shall boost the blue economy and open up more investment opportunities for Zanzibar”, a government spokesperson explained the purpose of the deal, happy about the cash flow. And because the initiative, which attracted over 50 affluent bidders, went so well, Zanzibar immediately decided to put another nine of his small isles up for grabs.
Zanzibar goes Maldives
“But we do not sell them, we only lease them”, Shariff Ali Shariff assured the public. The director of the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA) and Investment Minister Mudrik R. Soraga are the driving force behind the island scheme. Strategic investment is the key word of the deal: the daring financiers, whether local or foreign, are promised wide benefits in return for their island venture such as a 50 per cent income tax exemption for ten years. The envisaged small-island-tourism will bring a touch of Maldives to Zanzibar. Pamunda’s winning design is not just luxury but upper-upper-luxury: a circle of stilted water villas will connect the two Pamunda islands of together six hectares. A premium restaurant, bars and event space will be placed on the slightly elevated islands. The 16 water and seven coral villas, each ultra-spacious with more than 300 square metres, will form a private wellness world complete with a resident doctor, sauna, gym, spa and home office. Does the lady of the house require a hairdresser? “She’ll be served in her private salon”, envisages Šinogl. Guests will arrive by boat or helicopter.
No bling-bling, please!
“Will have no bling-bling”, insists the gentle, down-to-earth manager, who counts the Sultan of Oman amongst his clients: “Even VIPs can take their masks off with us.” His visitors want “the real thing”, he says, “genuine, natural, quality relaxation, hakuna matata, but with quality.” The architectural plans for Pamunda are drawn, the environmental assessment studies done. “Zero harm to the environment”, promise the developers; bungalows will be placed four metres above sea level facing east, taking tides, wind and yes, also global warming, into consideration. All small-island-candidates, the ministry says, were tested but only a few found worthy of the projects after screening their financial and operational capacity. All had to prove “ability to conserve the environment, biodiversity, cultural heritage and community development”- lest no one would accuse the government of selling its assets. For cultural festivities Zanzibari still have access to the islands. Lukáš Šinogl and two investors behind him, all hailing from the Czech republic, passed the test without any hitches.
Green care learnt in Fumba
The investors have learnt to master the game at the Tulia resort, opened in 2015 and one of Zanzibar’s best five-star retreats. 16 bungalow suites, 125 staff, manicured gardens and a service so perfect one doesn’t even notice it, are the backbone of the property. At Tulia, champagne is all-inclusive and so is a waterslide, rather unusual for a luxury hotel but much loved by children. Especially impressive is the green back-up, developed by the permaculture team of Fumba Town: 250 hens and 150 ducks happily roam around a huge ever-green farm in the back of the beach property which produces all there is to eat and enjoy by Tulia guests. Friendly maids mop shiny wooden villa floors with lemon grass concoction, a natural insect killer.
“Much of what we have learnt here, we will also put into practice at the future Pamunda resort”, says the general manager. There, villas will start at $3,200 - per night. For Šinogl and the government the ultra-luxury concept makes sense: presently, only one per cent of accommodation in Zanzibar is in the premium range.
Information for investors and holidaymakers: zipa.go.tz | Tulia Beach Resort, tuliazanzibar.com
By Andrea Tapper
Ultimate coffee experience at Utengule farm and lodge in Mbeya
1400 metre above sea level, where the air is cool and clean, we discovered absolute tranquillity, upcountry vibes, waterfalls and all we ever wanted to know about these brown beans of pleasure.
Coffee, coffee, coffee as far as I can see. Rows of perfectly trimmed coffee bushes stretching out on wavy land at the foot of the impressive Mbeya range in Southern Tanzania. Did I know that the term coffee beans is actually wrong for the most important ingredient in almost everbody’s favourite morning drink? “In reality they are berries”, tells me Aggrey Nyange, long time loyal field manager of the Utengule coffee farm. I had flown in at midday, joyfully escaping Zanzibar’s relentless heat, and noticed thousands of silver dots from above. Coming closer they turned out to be shiny rooftops of local houses scattered on the green hills.
Upcountry life surely looks and feels different. “It rained the whole night”, welcomes me manageress Debbie XXX, who has been running Utengule lodge – the traveller’s wing of the coffee farm - for several years. 1400 metre above sea level, warm summers and fresh winters perfectly combine with seasonal rains here. The landscape of dead volcanoes, rivers, springs and waterfalls is a coffee growers’ paradise since more than a century.
The rustic, immaculately kept, bungalow-type lodge is a child of the 80s. A dining room winds around a living tree, chandeliers twinkle above an old-fashioned bar and capable bar man Timothy Richard, 24, surprises me with ever-new coffee cocktails such as “Espresso Martini”. While fresh red-and-green tablecloths are being laid out and a fire is lit in the open fireplace, the sun dramatically sets above the rift valley. Baobabs, orchids and rose bushes shimmer in the twilight, definitely orchestrated by a man with a green thumb in the lush garden around a generous swimming pool. I can hardly take my eyes of the view from the wooden terrace of my country-suite, one of 16 rooms at the lodge, but tomorrow is my early-rise coffee farm day.
Aggrey Nyange awaits me at the 300-hectar-farm, only a short drive away from the lodge, founded by Swiss missionaries in 1919. And so does the farm owner himself, Swiss-born Hans Faessler, a dedicated coffee gourmand, grower and trader since 38 years. His business has taken him all over the world. With his green safari hat and winning smile, Faessler looks like an actor straight from “Out of Africa”. Key figures are quickly gathered: Utengule produces every year around 130 to 150 tons of exquisite coffee. It is roasted in Dar es Salaam; 50 per cent for export, the other half for the local market, which is a distinct feature of Utengule. In many coffee-producing, southern countries of the world, the best coffee is going abroad leaving locals with mediocre instant coffee. Not here: “Our export and locally available coffee has the same quality”, Faessler says.
November to May is the rainy and therefore planting season in Utengule; May to August the fields spring to life when the red, ripe cherries are picked, washed and dried in the sun. After resting for two months, the coffee beans are roasted, blended and packed.
Coffee is a durable fellow.
Hundred-year-old plants are still productive, also in Utengule. Walking over to the nursery, Nyange explains that the farm’s high-quality Arabica seedlings are grown here without pesticides and fertilisers. “Snails are our worst enemy”, says the field manager. The trees around us are thickly covered with moss, vigilantly we cross tiny streams, trying to avoid slipping off improvised wooden footbridges. Gumboots are not a bad idea for a visit to Utengule!
We don’t meet many workers on the plantation now, but during harvest hundreds are hired. Harvesting is manual work; afterwards a wet mill of newest technology will pull the pulp of the berries and spit out clean beans into a water basin before they land on drying tables for several days. “It’s not the quantity which counts in African coffee, but the outstanding quality”, Hans Faessler explains to me.
Tanzania’s coffee ranks high on the world market. Especially the bourbon varieties, originating from Bourbon island (today La Reunion) and grown under shady trees at Utengule are renowned for their smooth flavour and just the right acidity. “Our soil is rich in minerals from volcanic eruptions millions of years ago”, Faessler explains. Excursions take visitors to crater lakes, waterfalls and game parks nearby. The coffee trader is proud that on his farm the quality and fertility of the soil has been sustained more than hundred years.
What’s so special about coffee?
“Coffee is, just as wine, a gourmet product associated with the pleasant sides of life”, the 64 year old answers with a tiny trace of a Swiss accent. “It’s a versatile and re-finable product just by cultivation and processing.” He first came to Tanzania as administrator and bought the farm in the 80s, when he added the lodge. In 2005 he opened the Zanzibar Coffee House with its beautiful rooftop, hotel and café in historic Stone Town. “Consistency and endurance”, Faessler says, is most important in a business with ever-changing prices, and for him that includes sustainable, favourable conditions for staff and the community.
For the rest of my time at the coffee farm, I drink cafe latte in the morning and “Vanilla Ice Coffee” after an afternoon swim in the garden. I eat “coffee-flavoured pulled pork” for dinner and have a Cappuccino-Amarula cocktail as sun-downer. At 6pm, at an altitude above the clouds, I am definitely high on coffee.
By Andrea Tapper.
Fumba can pride itself on some skillful youngsters building mini dhows, larger than a tiny toy but smaller than real boats. Their role models: village elders.
One can see them when the sun is about to go down. Young buys treading towards the sea, passing the new Pavilion shopping centre, crossing over to Fumba Town B, heading straight to the ocean. It depends, of course, on the tide, where they can let their big and beautiful self-made replicas of Zanzibar dhows into the water. The coastline here is rocky.
But there is no hesitation for the boys. "Once I have completed crafting my dhow, I must join my friends in a race”, says Hamiar Hassan Ab'Rab. “It makes me happy when my boat can withstand the ocean waves.” The 17-year-old, born and raised in Zanzibar, belongs to a group dubbed 'Tunasubiri Bei' (Swahili for “We wait for the price”) of around twenty youngsters - the junior captains of Fumba.
They all live in and around Ndambani and Nyamanzi, two villages in the immediate neighbourhood of Fumba Town. What makes their play-boats unique on the island is the sheer size. About one to 1,20 m long, a small kid could almost really sail away with them. The boats are much larger than the miniature toy dhows one can find in souvenirs shops.
"It took me one year to learn how to shape wood planks, to cut a mast and some plastic or cotton as a sail. Our village elders were of great support to us”, says Hamiar, who has five siblings and attends Kombeni Secondary school: “But now, in three to four days my dhow is ready.” His best friend Ali Maulid Muhammad, 15, was ten years old, when his grandfather took him sailing. “At first, it was terrifying, but at the end of the day, I felt thrilled.”
Sometimes Hamiar and Ali manage to sell their boats, “mostly to foreigners”. Prices vary by size, the boys have learnt, from TZS 50,000 to 100,000. But with such strong grandfathers as role models they are not willing to sell their dreams: “One day we will be one of the great fishermen in Zanzibar.”
By Baraka Mosha
Big overhaul at Zanzibar port is underway
Cargo delayed for weeks or months, ships queuing in the sea, clients searching for their containers. Utter the word port and the majority of Zanzibari will just moan. “Not to worry, everything will change”, promises new deputy director of the port, Akif Khamis.
Where to start? When I visit Akif Khamis in his office on a Saturday, the new deputy director general of the Zanzibar port is the only person in the building. I have arrived loaded with statistics (worldwide median turnaround time…) and questions (How long does the off-loading of a ship take in Zanzibar?). First pleasant surprise: 30-year-old Khamis has got the answers. All of them.
0.97 days – less than one day – is the worldwide average turnaround time of a big cargo ship; containers are even a bit faster. Oman currently holds the world record in turnaround and clears container ships within only 12.5 hours, says a recent report by the United Nations agency UNCTAD. In Zanzibar “it takes an average of three to five days, and sometimes even 15 days”, Khamis admits. It’s not that Zanzibar does not work hard: every ship that does arrive gets offloaded immediately, but capacities are scarce and outdated. Waiting time at sea can be three to ten days.
“Zanzibar has outgrown its port by population and economic growth”, Akif Khamis sums up the situation. 95% of Zanzibar’s import and export as well as passengers go through the maritime port in Malindi, built in the 1920’s. Most ships calling here don’t come from afar but are so-called feeder vessels mainly from Mombasa, Kenya and some direct charters from Dubai.
So – what’s the plan?
“We have identified not one trouble area, but several”, says Khamis, who has a degree in automation engineering from Malaysia and a master in energy economics and finance from Aberdeen in Scotland: ”And for a long time nothing was done about it.” But now, port director Nahaat Mhfoudh and his deputy have a clear presidential mandate: to improve the chronically congested bottleneck of the island’s economy until Zanzibar’s new port terminal in Mwangapwani is ready.
The planned giant multi-purpose port for containers and dry bulk cargo - financed with the help of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman (THE FUMBA TIMES reported) - “shall be build by 2025”, Khamis said. The super port will be capable to handle one million 20-foot containers annually, the port in Malindi presently handles 80,000. The government “is currently in engagement with prospective private investors about the project”, he adds.
In the meantime, interim solutions to improve the situation in Malindi are in the making. An additional inland container storage facility would greatly help to win space, yet it is controversial since it would bring lots of heavy traffic on the road. Another urgently needed relief for the Malindi port would be the digitalisation of processes. “We are working on both”, says Khamis.
What are the real trouble spots at Malindi port?
EQUIPMENT: The devil is in the detail, the saying goes. Malindi has only one specialised automatic harbour crane (a 64-ton Liebherr model) and rarely spare parts for it. Instead, Zanzibar uses manually operated cranes and the vessels’ own cranes. That delays the work. Specialised tractors (“reach-stackers”) are missing, too. “Even one more super crane would offload 15 instead of three containers per hour”, explains Khamis, while he is taking me around. Good news: Heavyweight additional technical equipment including a digitalised weighing bridge has now been procured to finally overcome the most notorious constraints.
LOCATION: Containers are dangling dangerously close over our heads; enormous tractors are manoeuvring in very little space. Just next door, hundreds of passengers are streaming into the ferry terminal where not even a drop-off zone for cars exists. “Congestion is another major cause of inefficiency at the Malindi port”, says the port manager.
It is also a heritage issue: The historic location with its beautiful warehouse-type buildings is UNESCO-protected and cannot be changed. “It would be ideal as a scenic leisure port with curio shops, yachts and dhows and add value to the tourism market”, says Khamis – and the government is planning to do just that. There are also plans to decentralise ferry services in Zanzibar.
For now, because the port quay is only 200 metres long, only one large container or cargo vessel can enter at a time. Containers are off-loaded at random, making it difficult to locate them when customers come to collect their freight. Empty containers are shifted at night to Bwawani for interim storage. Everybody in Zanzibar has seen the huge towers of rusty containers “parked” there. Khamis’ count on a given day in May: 2,300 of them
Still, I don’t understand: Why do they remain there, and for how long? “The container pile was caused because shipping lines offload more containers then they take back to reduce their turn around period”, Khamis explains the calamity. But also here, there is light at the end of the tunnel: “The port management has successfully negotiated with shipping liners. They have now accepted to take the same amount back as they offload”, says the manager.
HUMAN FACTOR: As we watch in awe a port worker placing one 20-foot-container on top of another with the precision of a ballet dancer, I am shocked to hear that the man who is obiously a specialist is paid just a worker’s minimum. “A modern port needs a modern salary structure; wages have to be adjusted”, says Khamis. 600 people work in the port 24/7 in three shifts.
Another trouble area: some customers “use the port as storage facilities”, says the manager. To improve the situation, a one-stop service centre is planned to streamline the entire documentation process. An e-system would give customers clearance deadlines. In return they’d “have to provide advance documentation and pay advance clearance tax”, explains Khamis. A team from Zanzibar has been sent to Turkey to test a digital port system there. But there is something else lacking: “Mentality must change from government operation to corporate thinking”, Akif Khamis is convinced. Even private stakeholders may be brought on board.
When all this will happen, remains to be seen, but the port manager is confident: “Once we are modernised, people will appreciate our contribution to Zanzibar’s economic growth.” And with a smile he adds: “Then everybody will start liking us, instead of shouting at us.”
By Andrea Tapper
The leisure complex The Soul on the East Coast offers a completely new spin on tourism on the island - and lots of fun for global nomads.
Christo, the famous wrapping artist, would surely have loved it. A huge black fabric covering an entire block of new apartments dropped down with the precision of a stage curtain during the official opening of The Soul residential resort in Paje a few weeks ago. When the curtain fell, a dozen new homeowners from Tanzania, Kenya, UAE and from as far as the US and Canada ran towards the building to examine and take over their African investment. “It’s so beautiful, I don’t want to live anywhere else”, exclaimed an African-American lady from Panama, who said she is planning to spend her retirement in Zanzibar.
The paint has not yet dried on the facade, ten more apartment blocks and a huge man-made lagoon are still in the making, but for Zanzibar, the holiday complex in the hinterland of kite-surfing hotspot Paje, only about 300 metre walking distance to the beach, is already making history. It is an entirely new player within the tourism landscape. The first-ever residential resort on the island offering holiday apartments for sale. The first residential leisure facility falling under a new condominium law entitling foreigners to buy property on the island. And thirdly, it implements environment-friendly wood technology still rarely used in multi-storey buildings. “Zanzibar is propelling itself into the ranks of leading timber builders all over the world with this project”, says Thomas Just, 45, owner of Volks.house, the company constructing The Soul.
This feels like home
With its modern, all-white look, industrial-type black window- and door frames and many timber elements, The Soul resort will eventually consist of eleven terraced three- and-a-half storey buildings, each with about twenty apartments, making it a total of 240 fully serviced holiday apartments. Well-equipped flats with built-in-kitchens and wardrobes range in size from one-bedroom to three-bedroom. Kids get built-in bunk beds. Global nomads eco-working spaces on rooftops, kiters their surfboard garages and all globetrotters together an organic restaurant. “This already feels like home” commented some of the new owners during the opening.
Properly managed, wood is a fully renewable resource. Volks.house company, which employs more than 80 carpenters and other workers in Zanzibar, uses prefabricated timber frames for the house structure and cross laminated timber (CLT) for the ceilings at The Soul, expert Just explained. Only the foundation and the staircases are made of concrete for stabilisation and to keep termites away. Extensive fire tests have proven the wooden structure to be as fireproof as concrete. Another huge advantage is the prefabrication which minimises constructing mishaps.
The Soul is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Only a handful of units are still available. “We were literally overrun with interest”, says Milan Heilmann, 31, the site manager. “The Soul stands for beach-life, freestyle, leisure-oriented living. Among our buyers are young entrepreneurs, surfers and people looking for a second home or an investment.”
Apartments from $75,900
Apartment prices range from at $ 75,900 for a one-bedroom, ideal for a single or a couple, to $163,900 for a three-bedroom holiday flat. “Where in the world can you get a property near the beach for that money”, Milan Heilmann said.
The leisure complex is the brainchild and development of CPS, a German led company also building Zanzibar’s first eco city Fumba Town near the capital, and Dutch entrepreneur Rick Viezee. The Africa veteran who first came to Zanzibar in 1959 when there was no tourism at all, is quite a popular figure in Holland, has crossed the Sahara several times and started trans-Africa overland tours in his home country, before developing one of the biggest travel agencies of the Netherlands. The 75-year old adventurer loves Paje, for him “the right place at the right time.”
For all the partners involved in bringing The Soul to fruition, environmental solidity and community involvement plays an important role, they stressed. “Green is a currency for us”, Dietzold said: “In Tanzania we need more than 300,000 new homes every year. We need to change the way we build in the future, whether in urban developments or in leisure projects.“ A growing number of holiday-makers, that’s for sure, are eager to minimise their carbon footprint. The Soul will help them.
Pole, we’d love to speak Swahili at this point: The latest urban concept in Fumba Town goes as local as can be to provide equitable housing at unrivalled prices.
CheiChei was launched on the 21st of November at the Mao Zedong in Kikwajuni - Zanzibar. The event was attended by 1000+ guests including our guests of honor , Hon. Mudrick Soraga - Minister of Labour, Economy and Investment, Hon. Riziki Pembe - Minister of & the Director of ZIPA, Mr. Shariff A. Shariff.
Imagine a diversified bazaar downstairs, clean and cozy apartments upstairs, sustainability designed with local timber and stone bricks artistically designed by architect Leander Moons. A school and playground are just around the corner, a nice coffee shop waits you in the evenings. There are large units for families; studios, flats and 'shared living' for singles, modern amenities, and all of that at affordable prices starting at 30 million Tsh (less than $14,000) for a home.
Equitable real estate developments for lower and middle income groups in East Africa are extremely limited. At the same time, the demand for such housing is rapidly growing. In the urban-west area of Zanzibar an estimated 100,000 new homes are urgently needed. CheiChei Living, named after a greeting in swahili, wants to fill this gap by offering sustainable housing for a wider income group. "It is more about a way of life than about apartments", explains Mr. Tobias Dietzold - COO, CPS a project developer for Fumba Town: "Its about safety for your family, comfortable living in an uplifting environment." The project was launched in November int he presence of government representatives and a big elegant crowd - eager to win one of the apartments in a lottery! For interested buyers, a number of new financing options are available. CheiChei living will have 270 units; a first show apartment will open next year for visitors.
