"We are expanding to Uganda and Kenya; we took the decision last year and all of this year we've been working on it and we hope to start activities next year,"Mr. Piron Coralie, the chief executive officer said in an interview last week.
She added, "I've visited a lot of projects whether in Kenya or Uganda and there is a place for a company that wants to work on quality."
In Kenya, Piron explained, the company will go there as a developer and a contractor.
"What is very interesting is real estate," she said. While in the country, the contractor is separate from the architect, Thomas & Piron seeks to develop and construct its own projects.
With more than 38 million people, Kenya has an urban housing demand of 200,000 new units, according to the Managing Director of the country's National Housing Corporation Mr. James Ruitha. Currently the supply of houses is slightly above 36,000 units per annum, which is attractive to housing developers like Thomas & Piron.
Although Uganda is also attractive for real estate development, Ms. Piron said that her company seeks to enter the market through public tenders.
"We've looked at the public tenders so if we are lucky and get one public tender that's how we will enter the Ugandan market but then we are also planning to do real estate there."
Uganda, whose population is in above 30 million according to the country's report of July 2009, needs about 1.6 million houses. With the latest oil discovers, many business opportunities are expected to pop up in the country thus creating more jobs for the locals and push demand for decent housing up.
For Kenya, Thomas & Piron Grands Lacs plans to spend EUR 1million in equity and partner work with Kenyan lenders to finance its projects in the housing sector.
With Rwanda joining the East African Community (EAC), Ms. Piron said that doing business in the region has become easier than it used to be.
In Rwanda, she said the company makes an annual turnover of EUR15 million but it is expected to go down next year owing to the ongoing global economic slowdown.
The company, which is largely involved in construction of public and private buildings in Rwanda for the past years, is currently preparing to develop its first estate in the country.
Rwanda, like other East African countries, has an attractive construction sector with a high demand for residential houses, retail and office space particularly in Kigali City.
Thomas & Piron currently has operations in two African countries-Rwanda and Morocco but Ms. Piron said the company seeks to have a strong presence in East Africa.
She explained that more opportunities exist in South Sudan, Tanzania and Malawi.
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Regards Ngumba