Since its independence in 1975, Angola’s capital Luanda has been
going through deep processes of demographic, economic, social
and physical transformations. In this article, apart from introducing
the case study of private condominiums in the general discussion
on urban studies in the Global South, we focus on the dynamics of
transformations regarding housing for the mid/upper strata, providing the background for the emergence and recent expansion of
gated communities/condominiums, a phenomenon that has
acquired major importance in the recent decades in Luanda. The
specialised literature relates the demand for and multiplication of
these residential structures in Africa with issues such as the search
for safety associated with demonstrations of exclusive lifestyles. In
the case of Luanda, the authors found––through a case study and
qualitative data collected among residents and non-residents of
condominiums––that, contrary to the results from other studies,
condominiums in Luanda are essentially sought after primarily for
functional reasons such as access to infrastructure and better living
