BY YINKA KOLAWOLE

The real estate sector recorded a growth of 10.88 percent in the second quarter of 2013, which is a slight increase over the 10.06 percent growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.

Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) noted in its 2013 Second Quarter GDP Report that the increase is indicative of higher economic activity in the sector, adding that real estate activities continued to boom driven by investments at the low end.

The reported stated: “The growth recorded in the real estate services sector stood at 10.88 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared with 10.06 percent in the first quarter of 2013 indicating higher economic activity. When compared with the corresponding quarter in 2012, which was recorded at 10.81, the growth rates exhibited in the second quarter of 2013 was higher, although marginal.

“Real estate development is characterised by two classes of properties; the low end and the high end. The low end are places of low development which are driven by investments from individuals and few corporate bodies mostly in form of residential buildings, while the high end comprises of those areas where aggressive and high valued investments into real estate properties are made.”

On overall GDP estimates for 2012 and first and second quarters of 2013, the NBS report stated: “On an aggregate basis, the economy when measured by the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), grew by 6.18 percent in the second quarter of 2013, slower than the 6.56 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2013 and 6.39 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2012 as shown in Figure 1.

The nominal GDP for the second quarter of 2013 was estimated at N9,115,320.72 million, lower than N9,840,226.91 million estimated for the corresponding quarter of 2012 and N9,493,779.44 million recorded in the first quarter of 2013.

“The economy can be broadly classified into two output groups: Oil and Non-oil sectors. While the oil sector experienced production challenges, the non-oil sector output increased in the second quarter of 2013. The non-oil sector growth was driven by growth in activities recorded in the agriculture, air-lines, hotels & restaurants, as well as building & construction sectors.”