Moka Smart City: Smart property, business, living, education and retirement

Thinking about investing, working or retiring in Mauritius? Moka Smart City is leading the way by creating attractive business and property investment opportunities for the SA market.

Moka Smart City is situated inland — about a 10 to 15-minute drive from the capital Port Louis and 30 minutes from the international airport. As with many cities around the world, Port Louis has seen a relocation of many of the tech and financial services companies to the surrounding area of Ebene, Cyber City and Moka. This area is the economic heart of the island and is much like Sandton was to Joburg city centre 25 years ago.

Moka is being developed under the Smart City Scheme, a programme launched by the Mauritian government for setting up new and intelligent urban ecosystems, in the form of mixed-use developments integrating office, business, residential and leisure components.

Spreading over 500ha, Moka has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade. Since 2007, a number of local and international companies of different sizes and business sectors have realised the potential of this smart city and have taken residence in one of its business centres: Vivéa Business Park, Bagatelle Office Park and Telfair Square (Moka’s CBD).

Join the trend: move your business to Moka

The region is ideal for SA businesses looking to relocate to Mauritius. Moka aspires to provide businesses with the quality infrastructure they need to invest in and create new clusters of innovation and excellence, while deploying the framework and capacity to unlock innovation. Many local and international brands, such as PwC, have established their regional head offices in the smart city.

To build your own office or commercial project, you can purchase a serviced stand of about 1,700m², with pricing starting from R1,600 per m². Over the past 10 years, Moka has achieved an excellent return on investment with 9.5% rental yield obtained on offices.

For those who prefer to rent their office space, Oficea offers modular office space within Moka’s business parks. Oficea creates and provides much more than offices. It enables inspiring work experiences in the heart of Mauritius for its tenants, investors and partners, with a sustainable approach. Oficea specialises in the development of new grade A office spaces, and property and asset management for existing offices.

Invest in residential property

Business relocation may also tie up neatly with family relocation. Moka Smart City offers a safe and affordable lifestyle. It brings to the market a new property range that is a shift away from the high value, holiday or second homes traditionally sold to international buyers. Its buy-to-let investment apartments start from about R2.7m, offering high occupancy levels with rental yields at 6.5% a year and capital appreciation of 7% a year.

The developer: ENL Group

Moka and Oficea are subsidiaries of the ENL Group, one of the largest listed corporate entities on the island. Over the past 10 years, ENL has helped turn Moka into one of the most successful development models in Mauritius.

ENL property, ENL’s property development arm, develops environmentally friendly, strategically located and economically sustainable property projects that are integrated with the surrounding communities. The success of its projects is built on the quality of its developments, their accessibility, its reputation as a forward-thinking and reliable developer and the professionalism of its teams.

The company has completed several property developments such as Bagatelle Mall, the country’s largest shopping destination, and the IRS projects of Heritage Villas Valriche and La Balise Marina.

The US embassy recently purchased a plot of land in Moka to host the its new premises within the next four years.

Why Moka?

The Moka region is transitioning into a more sustainable and liveable city through the progressive rolling out of a “city-smartening” concept over the past decade. This flexible improvement process is continually adapted in line with the critical mass attained and technological advances.

Moka Smart City has an eco-efficient approach to sustainability through waste management, recycling, energy efficient building design and renewable energy, with more than 7,000 solar panels installed throughout the city.

Thirty-five percent of its total land area is set aside for green zones, public parks and spaces, including an open-air amphitheatre. The development offers a range of benefits, including convenient access to major road networks, public transport and internal mobility through public and non-motorised transport, a bus terminal and dedicated bike and pedestrian lanes.

Why Mauritius?

Mauritius is centrally located in the Indian Ocean and connected through daily flights to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. It constitutes the financial and transactional trade hub between Asia and Africa.

The island country’s people are friendly and welcoming and represent a rainbow of cultures. Mauritius, ranked 13th in the world on the World Bank’s “Doing Business Index 2020” and seventh in world on the Fraser Institute’s “Economic Freedom Index (2018)”, has adopted a global outlook. It has developed from a mono-crop, sugar-driven economy of the 1970s to the rising star of the Indian Ocean, with a strong and diversified economy and GDP consistently about 4% for the past decade.

The employment rate is 92%, the matriculation rate 97%, and it has an attractive tax regime (15% corporate tax, no inheritance tax, no capital gains). It offers a safe, secure and healthy lifestyle, world-class education and medical care — a mere four-hour flight from SA.

This article was paid for by Moka Smart City.