British property investor creating $46 million penthouse paradise in Zanzibar – bringing Manhattan-style luxury to East Africa

Richard Ashby is building Shivo Towers –  the island’s first portered luxury apartments with room service from a high-end restaurant, huge communal pool, spa, gym, co-working space and vast manicured tropical gardens on a beachside plot in Paje.

Ashby left London for the Indian Ocean holiday hotspot to escape Covid restrictions four years ago – and this is his second real estate project.

Investors can make a 66% return in the booming winter sun destination which is a third of the price of Dubai or the Caribbean and has been dubbed ‘the new Maldives’.

Ashby, founder and CEO of Shivo Tanzania, said: “This is a new landmark for Zanzibar – world class penthouse living coming to the island for the first time. This is Manhattan-style luxury in East Africa.

“The development embodies Italian contemporary design while taking inspiration from the natural world and the surrounding landscape of Zanzibar.”

The two towers will have four penthouses, each with an asking price of $2 million, but there will also be more affordable entry-level studio suites starting at $120,000.

Shivo Towers has been designed by the renowned Italian architectural firm Much More, based in Dubai, London and Milan and led by director Christian Bonu.

Holiday real estate in Zanzibar is booming and land prices have exploded since foreigners were allowed to register deeds in their own name in 2018. The Daily Telegraph in London has reported that investors can make a 66% return on holiday property investments.

Thousands of tourists flocked to the island during the Covid pandemic to escape restrictions and fell in love with its low-crime, carefree lifestyle. Tanzania was one of the few places on the planet not to go into full lockdown or force visitors to wear a mask.

Its late president John Magufuli, who had a PhD in chemistry, chose to follow established pandemic protocols and keep the economy open. It was this freedom that brought Ashby, an off plan estate agent dealing in luxury apartments next to the Thames in London, to the island in 2020.

Rather than return to Europe when lockdown ended, he helped to create a $24 million private estate of villas in Nungwi and Paje which have largely been sold.

For the second project of his company, Shivo SMC Private Limited, he decided to go even more upmarket – bringing the very finest European design quality to East Africa.

The two 49-metre towers provide soaring eight-metre high apartment levels ceilings, giving every owner the feeling of living in their own vast, airy penthouse.

There will be 105 units for sale at a total cost of more than $46 million. Ashby added: “We are taking luxury real estate to the next level in Zanzibar – nothing like this has been tried on the island before.

“With investment coming into the island at record levels, tourists and investors are looking for a new gold standard in off-plan luxury living.

“For the first time I can deliver the primary flagship standard of luxury build quality in Tanzania – similar to the riverside apartments that I grew up selling in Westminster in central London.

“Investors will get vast vaulted open mezzanine floors, creating the luxurious penthouse feel you get in the best penthouses overlooking Central Park in Manhattan but right next to the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean.”

The Zanzibar archipelago is a jewel in the Indian Ocean, just 60 miles off Africa’s east coast and part of Tanzania.

It has long been popular with safari-loving Western tourists who stop off for a week in the sun after enjoying the wildlife in the Serengeti or relax after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak. It is also a haven for kite surfers.

It has a warm climate, with average daytime temperatures of 28-degrees, and is a fraction of the cost of other popular winter sun destinations.

* For more details about investing in luxury holiday penthouses and apartments  off plan in Zanzibar, check out Richard Ashby’s Shivo Tanzania Instagram or his website – Byshivo.com 

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