Who owns Africa’s most expensive hotels? The investors behind the continent’s luxury property boom

Africa’s hospitality industry is attracting investment from billionaires, sovereign wealth funds, royal families and international hotel groups, as developers expand luxury accommodation across the continent’s major cities, safari destinations and coastal resorts, according to a Nairametrics review of the ownership behind some of its priciest properties.

The investment momentum reflects growing demand for premium hotels, branded resorts and exclusive travel experiences, particularly in markets such as Morocco, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. Beyond room rates that can run into thousands of dollars per night, these properties represent significant investments in real estate, tourism infrastructure and hospitality management. Ownership structures vary considerably: some hotels are controlled by wealthy individuals and family businesses, while others operate through partnerships involving institutional investors, sovereign investment companies and international hotel management groups, with operators including Four Seasons, One&Only and Singita managing properties across the continent.

In South Africa, the luxury hospitality portfolio is dominated by family groups. Red Carnation Hotels, founded by South African-born hotelier Beatrice Tollman, owns The Oyster Box, a five-star hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean in Umhlanga. The group acquired the historic property in 2006 and reopened it in 2009 after extensive renovations, expanding across Africa, Europe and the United States. Liz Biden co-founded The Royal Portfolio with her husband Phil, converting family holiday homes into boutique hotels including Royal Malewane and, in 2017, The Silo Hotel above Cape Town’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa; the group remains family-owned with their son Matthew Biden as chief executive. Luke Bailes founded Singita in 1993, building on a family conservation legacy that began in 1925, and its portfolio now spans South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, including the Lebombo and Sweni lodges inside a private concession in Kruger National Park.

North African assets are held at state and royal level as well as by private conglomerates. Morocco’s state-controlled OCP Group, led by chairman and chief executive Mostafa Terrab, owns the historic five-star La Mamounia in Marrakech, having acquired the Moroccan government’s remaining stake for about 1.7 billion dirhams (US$173 million). King Mohammed VI is the royal investor behind the Royal Mansour Collection, which includes Royal Mansour Marrakech, Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay and Royal Mansour Casablanca — a 1953 property that reopened on April 15, 2024 with 149 rooms, suites and private apartments after eight years of redevelopment. Sovereign and state-linked capital is also prominent: the Investment Corporation of Dubai, whose managing director Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani also chairs Kerzner International, holds a major stake in the group whose brands include One&Only and Atlantis, and Kerzner’s One&Only Gorilla’s Nest opened in Rwanda in March 2020.

East, central and southern Africa feature a mix of private investors and management agreements. UAE-based Albwardy Investment, founded by Ali Saeed Juma Albwardy in 1975, owns the Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti in Tanzania through a management agreement with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and its subsidiary ASB Hospitality Zimbabwe acquired the five-star Meikles Hotel in Harare for about US$20 million in 2020. In Botswana, Wilderness — founded in 1983 and led by chief executive Keith Vincent — operates the DumaTau and Little DumaTau camps, and attracted institutional capital when The Rise Fund acquired a 34% stake in 2018 before the company was taken private in 2019. Kerzner also operates One&Only Nyungwe House in Rwanda.

The breadth of the ownership map underscores how African luxury hospitality has become a real-estate asset class in its own right, linking high-value land and buildings in cities, national parks and coastal resorts to international tourism spending. For investors, the appeal lies in exposure to destination development and premium accommodation demand, even as the underlying structures — family holdings, listed groups, state-owned enterprises and sovereign funds — vary widely from market to market.