September 16 2026 16:05
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
The API Summit, which is the most important real estate conference in Africa, will take place this week in Cape Town, as an assortment of skilled people from across the continent meet to discuss how to make property and its related industries thrive across the continent.
Now in its 17th year, the Africa Property Investment (API) Summit has evolved and become essential to attend for people who work in property or in a supporting industry. Wayne Troughton explains that the summit has evolved and it offers tremendous value to attendees.
The summit includes main plenary sessions, the hospitality and residences forum, the Africa proptech forum, and, for the first time: the multifamily forum. These discussion sessions and forums offer a great variety of content to visitors.
The main API Summit plenary sessions — These core sessions cover the broader real estate investment landscape across Africa, including capital flows, market trends, and cross-border investment strategy.
The Africa Proptech Forum – Taking place on 18 September, the forum explores how technology and AI are integrated into the real estate value chain across property asset classes. Proptech enhances property management and returns and is critical to the future success of the real estate industry.
The API Hospitality Forum – Taking place on 17 September, the forum is focused on the specifics of hotel, lodge and other hospitality type development and investment. This is a segment of the market that has its own capital structures, operator relationships, and development timelines and performance seasonality distinct from commercial or residential real estate.
Multi-family Forum – Taking place on 18 September, the forum will include discussions around the growing multi-family rental residential market. These properties are housing units built for rent and not for sale. These commonly include apartment buildings and multiple housing units within a single complex or estate. Often, institutional investors own these large-scale rental properties and have them managed by professional and specialist residential property operators. As an asset class characterised by consistent long-term income for investors, multifamily housing is a well-established and sought-after investment class in many developed markets such as the US, UK and Europe, where it represents a significant portion of the total property market.
Institutional investment in SA multifamily housing is growing and the investment case for it is driven by the likes of the South African Multifamily Residential Rental Association (SAMRRA), an integral part of the forum at this year’s API Summit.
Wayne Troughton, CEO of HTI Consulting, says that the summit differs from other real estate events in numerous ways.
“I have been to every API Summit so far. Over the years the event has developed and evolved. It offers people exposure to a more diverse group of property, finance, investment and other professionals than other events. If I go to a typical hospitality conference, I’ll meet investors who have typically invested in hospitality before. But at API is attended by people working in real estate sectors which are not just limited to hospitality. There is a bigger pool of people to interact with and that is highly valuable,” says Troughton.
He and other regular attendees understand that the API Summit remains an unmissable fixture amid a busy event season across Africa. The Summit has spent the better part of two decades becoming the reference point for how capital, developers, and policy converge on the African built environment.
The event will be hosted by real estate media personality and investor, Kura Chihota. Panel discussions and talks will be loaded with talent across the two days. The likes of Casey Sprake of AG Capital, Wayne Godwin who is MD for Cushman &Wakefield Broll Hospitality, Broll Property Group CEO Malcolm Horne, Nyi Adeleye of Standard Bank Group and Thomas Reilly of investment group Lango. Other speakers and panellists include Rob Wesselo the MD of International Housing Solutions, Mesh Pillay of YW Capital, Eleni Georgopoulou of Your Host property management and short-term rental company operating in Kenya and Turner & Townsend Regional MD for Africa, Tim White and Director for Advisory and Transactions at CBRE Excellerate, Africa, Fabio Nava.
API Summit 2026 will attract more than 600 attendees from 30-plus countries and feature insights from more than 120 speakers.
“African real estate is in an exciting space overall especially in a number of growing markets. While Cape Town offers large demand for housing and hotels we are also working on projects in the likes of Morocco as the country prepares to co-host the 2030 Football World Cup and Egypt which is enjoying impressive growth in tourism,” says White.
Troughton, who is Cape Town based stresses that the interest in investing in African real estate has expanded markedly in the past few years.
“We see the likes of Growthpoint Properties which has a stake in Lango and developer Amdec at API. The interest is broad. Pension investors also invest in large listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) like Growthpoint. In fact, around 40% of HTI’s work this year has been for pension funds,” he says.
South African pension funds are also interested in businesses who have projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe, Troughton says. As sectors develop African real estate will no longer be dominated by only traditional investors which include individuals, family offices and high net worth individuals but more private equity, corporations and multinationals will enter the market, Godwin adds.
CAPE TOWN WELL-PLACED TO HOST API SUMMIT 2026
Cape Town is a fast-growing city which offers strong investment opportunities. Visitors to the API Summit will be able to enjoy the conference and then leisure opportunities over the weekend. Troughton explains that the city’s business and leisure offerings hold it in good stead for the future.
“The growth in RevPAR (Revenue per available room) and ADR (Average Daily Rate) has been very strong in Cape Town this past year. Many business and leisure visitors have familiarised themselves with Cape Town and return regularly,” says Troughton.
Franschhoek, the V&A Waterfront and the Atlantic Seaboard are all well-established but still enjoy demand for new hotels, resorts, and mixed-use developments. Stellenbosch and wine farm areas are also gaining in popularity among visitors. The upcoming R10bn Cape Winelands Airport which will be developed in Durbanville over the next few years will support business and leisure tourism in the area and its surrounds. API Summit attendees can also visit these wine farm areas and enjoy the Western Cape’s natural beauty this weekend.
10TH ANNUAL AFRICA PROPERTY INVESTMENT AWARDS
Industry leaders will be honoured at the 10th annual API Awards ceremony on Thursday evening, complemented by a networking dinner. The prestigious awards recognise African real estate companies and professionals competing at a global standard.
New categories this year include Best New Residential (Mid-Market), Best New Upmarket Residence, Best New Safari/Lodge Development, Advisory Consultant of the Year, Asset Manager of the Year, Architectural Team of the Year, Newsmaker of the Year, and Hospitality Consulting & Advisory Partner of the Year. A new Performance & Legacy category has also been introduced, recognising high-performing retail, office, and mixed-use assets that have delivered sustained results over time rather than just a single standout year.
A CONFERENCE NOT TO BE MISSED
The API Summit has built a reputation as Africa’s most influential gathering of property investors, developers, and industry leaders. The “mix in the room” spans institutional pension funds, family offices, sovereign wealth managers, developers, and banks This year it’s moving to a bigger home at the CTICC, bringing an expanded exhibition space and additional breakout rooms to match its growing scale. This expansion isn’t incidental; it reflects a summit that has been steadily outgrowing its previous venues as attendance and sponsorship interest have climbed year on year.
Both Thursday’s and Friday’s agendas include networking lunches while the conference ends on Friday with networking cocktails. The meeting opportunities, quality and variety of content and access to Cape Town and its surroundings make the API Summit a highlight on the built environment calendar.
Read more about the 2026 API Summit here and check out the latest episode of the Another Brick in the Wall podcast here, where Property Flash delves into African hospitality trends.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
