The Maputo condominios are protected and enclosed residential areas established on the north-eastern part of the municipality along the Costa do Sol. Those residential complexes reveal the deep contemporary transformations occurring in Mozambique. Indeed, in terms of space their establishment illustrate the neo-liberal policy the country has chosen at the end of the Eighties. After the opening of the programs of co-operation, the arrival of different NGO (USAID, PMA) and the strong exogenous investments (like the Mozal aluminium smelter), a foreign population have immigrated (diplomats, investors), looking for viable and safe residences in a poor and degraded city. Those enclosed residential areas, with strict safety protection in general, became the solution. It seems difficult to put aside the security problem as a major criterion in choosing this type of residences, a crime issue exists although it takes a different form than that of South-African metropolis. However, it is not the only criteria : commodity and privacy are put forward, even if the crime issue seems to be more and more important. Moreover, the emergence of the condominios operates within a rather opaque land framework, which has profited some specific actors (local people as well as foreigners). With punctual operations intended to drive off the poor local inhabitants, the dynamic leads to a homogenisation of this costal area, which suits to the new image of the town.