Nova Cidade de Kilamba (Kilamba New City) is a large housing development 30 km (18 miles) from Luanda, the capital city of Angola. It is being built by the China International Trust and Investment Corporation and is largely empty. Kilamba was designed to accommodate 500,000 people and includes 750 eight-storey apartment blocks, over 100 commercial premises and a dozen schools. The cost is reported as US$3.5 billion, financed by a Chinese credit line and repaid by the Angolan government with oil. It is probably one of the largest construction projects in Africa. As of July 2012, the buildings are largely complete but still unoccupied. Only 220 apartments had been sold out of the first release of 2,800.
