Top Real Estate Developments to be recognised at the Africa Property Investment Awards The awards will recognise innovation and outstanding achievement across the entire property industry JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, May 30, 2017/APO/ -- Africa’s premier real estate competition, the African Property Investment Awards (API Awards) will be launched at this year’s API Summit & Expo 2017 (www.APIsummit.co.za), taking place on the 24th August 2017, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa. The awards will recognise innovation and outstanding achievement across the entire property industry whilst providing distinguished developers, suppliers and owners working in Sub-Saharan Africa (Excl South Africa) with a platform to showcase their best projects and services. API Events have proven their commitment to the African property industry, hosting successful and insightful summits for the last 8 years. As an independent organisation offering broad coverage of the African real estate sector, API Events have a reputation for fostering education, discussion and knowledge sharing throughout the industry, making them the ideal hosts for these prestigious awards. Looking back on the last decade, there have been notable achievements in the development of real estate on the continent. Growth in the sector has highlighted the important role both local and regional investors and developers play in the industry. With this in mind, API Events has moved to introduce an awards platform that is both reputable and widely respected in order to recognize these achievements, as well as the distinction and quality of these contributions. “With these awards, API Events hopes to not only encourage industry players to continue to achieve these same levels in regard to both industry standards and expectations, but also to raise the development standards across the industry in future. As the market evolves we want to ensure that all stakeholders strive to achieve excellence, and at the same time recognise those who are delivering on pioneering developments in Africa’s often tough development environments,” says Kfir Rusin, API Events Managing Director. “As the continent’s pre-eminent property investment summit, it is fitting that API Summit & Expo should recognise excellence by giving awards to the best of the best. The prestige of an API Award will undoubtedly bring an increase in quality in all fields in the property industry in Africa,” adds jury panellist and owner of the W Hospitality Group, Trevor Ward. The panel of judges will bring together a number of distinguished industry leaders from across the continent, each member boasting a variety of expertise and experience. Joining Trevor Ward on the jury panel will be Gerhard Zeelie, Head Real Estate Finance: Rest of Africa at Standard Bank, (RSA), Joao Terlica, Managing Director at Sagaci Research (Nigeria), David Kinyua, Director at Esham Park Group (Kenya), Elizabeth Wangeci Chege, Chief Executive Officer at WEB Limited & Chairperson of the Kenya Green Building Society (Kenya), Godfrey Tapela, Director at IFC (Kenya), Wafula Nabutola, Regional Director of RICS (East Africa), Jenny Luesby, Managing Director of African Laughter (Kenya), Kaisi Kalambo, President for the Architects Association of Tanzania (Tanzania) and Malcolm Horne, Group CEO of The Broll Property Group. The judging panel will critically assess all entries in these categories: