Sustainable Property Development in Tanzania

Scaring revelations about global climate change and its effects have necessitated adoption of sustainable approaches in most of the human activities. Property development is one of the activities which are increasingly embracing sustainable technologies. Sustainability in property development, sometimes referred to as green building, is rapidly gaining attention worldwide. It is however true that some parts of the world have not accomplished much on the ground. Tanzania is one of the countries in which evidence of concerted efforts towards green building can hardly be seen. Although green building entails extra initial costs, its long term benefits far outweigh the costs. Besides, some countries like Tanzania are endowed with most of the natural resources needed for green building. For instance, Tanzania has abundant sources of wind energy, solar energy, bio energy and hydro energy. Availability of a variety of local construction materials and cheap labour is another clear opportunity. This study first identifies opportunities for green building in Tanzania before assessing green building awareness amongst key professionals and property owners. The study further examines sustainability aspects in some selected buildings completed during the past decade in Dar es Salaam city. The data for this study was collected using a questionnaire which was administered to 50 key informants comprising architects, engineers, property managers and property owners. Results show that most of the architects, engineers and property managers are aware of the advantages of green building and the opportunities available in Tanzania. It is also revealed that most of the property owners are inadequately informed about the advantages of green building and the opportunities available in Tanzania. Results also show that that most of the buildings completed within the past decade are not built with green building requirements in mind.