Abstract/Summary

his paper shows that global skyscraper construction both accelerated and globalized after the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, into the twenty-first century. Despite being increasingly incorporated into the global economy as a ‘new frontier’ for global investors, Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) did not share in this construction boom. This paper demonstrates that the absence of skyscrapers in SSA is an empirical puzzle. The key drivers of skyscraper construction – economic growth, population increase and migration, globalization, and vanity-driven competition – should all be pushing SSA into building upwards. The key to resolving the empirical puzzle of why SSA doesn't build skyscrapers lies in land markets: better functioning land markets would directly increase the supply and indirectly increase the demand for skyscrapers. This paper suggests a mechanism to allow city governments to focus their capacity on protecting the property rights of developers building skyscrapers, allowing a skyscraper project to be granted the status of a standalone Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The resulting construction of skyscrapers may simply increase the supply of luxury residential accommodation and office space and displace any pre-existing informal construction to a less advantageous location on the city periphery. The demand for formal residential accommodation is also influenced by more than price – culture matters. Consequently, the paper concludes by noting that inclusive or affordable housing construction needs to be rooted in a more holistic development strategy.

Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2026.100550