From the article: Kilamba was financed by a Chinese credit line - which Angola is repaying with oil - so it has technically been paid for. But if the houses go

From the article: Kilamba was financed by a Chinese credit line - which Angola is repaying with oil - so it has technically been paid for. But if the houses go unsold, then the Angolan government will be left with stock on their hands and a potentially wasted investment. So it's not a 'gift' per se. It's more like a bribe, to fulfill the president's promise of 1M new apartments. By pricing these at $120K each, China can extract a _lot_ of minerals from Angola.