Libreville - Post Report Question and Answers
What is your housing like? What are typical housing sizes, locations, and commute times for expatriates?
The housing is generally pretty decent, with a few minor issues. It varies between 3 bedroom apartments and 2 to 3 bedroom houses (almost exclusively town homes). Everything is within a 10 minute drive of the Embassy and located in a nice neighborhood of town. A couple of new complexes have a poorly maintained and unpaved road to them, but the drive over it is only about 2 minutes. The housing is typically spacious and recently renovated. The USG-owned compound is the one exception to this, but I understand renovations are scheduled to gut them and redo entirely. - Oct 2020
Embassy housing is a mix of newer leased houses...some quite nice. All are close to the Embassy. The Embassy owns a six-unit townhouse complex called Sabliere with a big yard and great pool. Houses on the complex are from 1980 and are showing their age but still the best options for families. - Jul 2014
Our company put us up in town houses in the center of town. These were newer and in decent condition and fair construction standard. Other expats we know live past the airport in the Sabliere area in single family houses. The American Embassy employees live in an older townhouse compound near the Beach Club in Sabliere. - Oct 2013
Nice apartment and condo living. It's very expensive if you pay for it yourself. I would suggest living outside of downtown in Sabliere or somewhere on the beach. - Apr 2012
Depending on traffic, 20 minutes is good. Over an hour is bad. There is really only one major route, so when the president is moving, the road gets closed down, causing a lot of traffic jams. Housing is big and nice. - Aug 2011
There is one main road, the Bord de Mer. When it gets messed up, the city slows to a crawl. Commutes are generally not good, but not horrible eaither. Libreville is a city of less than 700,000 - so its tiny by most standards. - Jul 2010
