Sitting at the Departure lounge of MMA1 one beautiful afternoon and waiting patiently with a colleague to protocol one of our brand ambassadors flying in from Enugu, a smartly dressed young lady walked up to me ad introduced herself politely. Her charming smile will definitely make you give her audience, she asked if I have ever been to Dubai, I answered NO….only in dreams when I visit fantasy island. We got talking and she sizzled me with what Dubai is like and most especially the growth in the Real Estate Market while encouraging me to also invest in there.
I was captivated, listened with full attention but was polite enough to tell her I might not be able to attend any of their presentations. We exchanged contacts and from the minute she left, I started doing a little research on the Dubai Real Estate Market and also see similarities with the Nigerian market.
Emmiraties invested around Dhs7billion in Dubai properties while Indians continued to be the top foreign investors with transactions worth Dhs5.8billion. Investment in Dubai totalled Dhs35billion in the first quarter of 2014, up by 57% from same period last year (figures by Dubai Land Dept). Number of investors in the Dubai Real estate Market has also risen notably with individuals carrying out transactions around 13,279 up by 81% from 7,339 during the same period last year. Britons, Indians, Pakistanis all investing and contributing to the boom recorded with the increase in value of transactions as a result of Dubai’s promising economic outlook, maturation of its investment environment, its strong infrastructure and its transparent legislation that allows for regulation of the market to reduce practices like flipping and speculations.
Influx of people seeking green pasture here as made rent increase by 22%, apartments by 29% and villas at 15% as a result of demand exceeding current supply as projects under constructions are way down the pipeline (that’s more money for every investor). A new research shows that Dubai urgently needs more than 260,000 new affordable homes to be built over the next 6 years as they prepare for the EXPO 2020. Not surprised Dubai developers are throwing this massive opportunity to make money at Nigerians, amazingly Nigerians are buying up properties in Dubai!!!
Similar to Dubai, Nigeria looks like a Real Estate investor’s dream with close look at the Lagos Real Estate Market but why are Nigerians not actually investing in it? Why the transfer of money to develop other markets?
Lagos Island…. new haven for viable Real Estate Investment
Recent GDP Rebasing puts the country’s economy as the best in Africa, ahead of South Africa and also highlights huge potentials in the Real Estate Market. Construction and Real Estate sectors are reported to be growing at 10 & 12% respectively and with an emerging middleclass of about 23% of the population that yearns to shop in modern stores and also attracting many of the world’s largest companies that will need offices…this is a boom for foreign investors.
Despite the growth of construction companies and private estate developers, there is still not enough quality affordable housing because the business is frustrated by widespread corruption, poor state infrastructure, financing & expertise; it’s difficult to get affordable land, mortgage and effective housing policies which is a result of disconnect between the industry operators and policy makers thereby making the industry amorphous, uncoordinated and unpredictable. Recent research shows that Nigeria needs about 2.6 million homes a year to meet the expected 44million housing deficit by 2020…. A huge void to be filled which involves not just the government’s input but also effective participation of the private sector.
Majority of Nigerians live in poverty in shanty towns or in basic concrete block and iron-roofed houses built by themselves which most times leads to urbanised slums, building mass housing for the poor has not been seen as a popular or viable investment.
“Homes should no longer be the purview of the rich and wealthy as it is now, but that every Nigerian across all income strata should have access to decent homes”
Onus of putting the Real Estate market and housing in the right perspective vastly lies with the government; refinancing of mortgage banks to make loans accessible at low interest rates, policy formulation to ensure stress free land acquisition and documents procurement without ignoring regulation of prices of building construction costs and products’ prices, and also creating a very conducive environment for both local & foreign investors to encourage investment
“there are sizeable challenges to overcome but in many ways Nigeria represents the perfect storm for real Estate Investment; huge population, rapid urbanization and a growing middle class” – Michael Chudi Ejekam
abulesowo 
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