Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2014 | Page 56

MAURITIUS

BY NEALE PETERSEN

Island bustle
The business hub of East Africa

M

auritius is a fascinating world-inone slice of paradise. Its name itself
conjures up images of tropical luxury
and stupendous extravagance.

The leading world banks all have established
subsidiaries in Mauritius including Barclays
PLC, HSBC, Standa rd Cha r tered and
Deutsche Bank.

people in 150 companies, ENL is made of
five core divisions viz. ENL Property, ENL
Commercial, ENL Investment, ENL Lifestyle
and ENL Agribusiness.

Mauritius lies in the heart of the Indian
Ocean, situated east of Madagascar and
north east of Reunion Island. It was named
after Dutch prince Maurice van Nassau with
a landmass of 1866 square kilometres with a
length of 65 kilometres and maximum width
of 45 kilometres. The population is currently
at 1.3 million people with a government target
aiming at two million inhabitants within the
next 10 years.

Law

E N L h a s c o n s o l i d a t e d it s p r o p e r t y
development and management d iv ision
t h rough ENL Proper t y a nd t he g roup
i s i nvol v e d i n s e v e r a l k e y r e sident i a l
a n d c o m m e r c i a l a n d h i g h- e n d p a r k s
developments. Amongst others, ENL owns
Villa Valriche a luxurious IRS project in Bel
Ombre, Bagatelle shopping centre, which is
one of the largest shopping centres developed
in this part of the Indian Ocean along with
prominent SA property developers Atterbury.
In addition to that La Balise Marina is the
f irst residential marina offering buyers a
freehold residence with direct access to the
sea and private mooring.

The Mauritian economy has a lot going for it
even when compared to six years ago and all the
indicators are there to prove that its economy is
growing at a steady rate year-on-year. Mauritius
moved from a slow developing country reliant
almost exclusively on agriculture - more
specifically sugarcane farming - to a newly fast
growing industrialised economy.
Over the last 30 years it has engaged in crucial
structural changes to meet the requirements
of a truly modern economy. It has successfully
diversif ied into textiles, tourism and the
financial service sectors. It has its own stock
exchange called the Stock Exchange of
Mauritius. In 2012, economic growth was at
3.3% and the unemployment rate only 7.9%.
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March 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

Maur