By Peter Egwuatu

The Chief Executive Officer of Lead Capital Plc, Prince Abimbola Olashore, has said that to unlock opportunities in Nigeria’s real estate market, the financial sector has to be reformed, fair banking practices have to be adopted and better supervision has to be focused on.

Estate

He explained that this will also stabilise prices in the long run and help to utilise the 17 million deficits in the real estate market which represents a huge opportunity.

Olashore, stated this during a paper presentation on “Unlocking the Opportunities in the Nigerian Residential Real Estate market: The Investor’s Perspective” at a forum recently organised by Lekki Gardens Estate Investment in Lagos.

According to him, the opportunities inherent in the sector lies in the fact that there’s an increasing population growth in which more than 80 per cent of Nigerians live in settlements and demand for housing far exceeds the supply.

His words “Opportunities in the real estate financing can be seen from the increasing population growth, rapid urbanisation and the growth of the middle class have spurred demand for real estate with the level of housing at only 2 dwelling units per thousand people compared to a rate of 8-10 dwelling units per thousand people as recommended by the United Nations.

Nigeria has a population growth rate of 3 percent and a rural-urban migration rate of 5 per cent per annum. The rate of housing demand continues to exceed supply, presenting ample opportunities for growth and development”.

Viewing the investment perspective of the Real Estate, he portrayed Africa and the Emerging market as being field with opportunities for healthy returns due to their increasing growth fundamentals. This is due to the fact that the Eurozone crisis has slowed down growth and weakened advanced economies from their strong position as an investment destination.

This has made investors focus on promising markets, such as Africa, and the fact that Africa’s cities are experiencing an influx of residents in search of work and better standards of Living. The Managing Director of FSDH Merchant Bank, Mr Rilwan Belo-Osagie, who spoke from the Banker’s perspective on ‘Financing Real Estate deals’ stated that one of the peculiarities in the industry is that there is a large demand for housing in Nigeria and as such the Real Estate business is growing fast.

“The key issue in financing real estate is achieving bankability, and dealing with weak value chains which ranges from property registration and taxes, Infrastructures, high interest rates demand, and access to long term finances. Unless we get more mortgages in Nigeria, developing the residential real estate among other real estates will be difficult.”

While trying to unlock real estate opportunities from the media perspective, the Publisher of Business Day Paper, Mr Frank Aigbogun reiterated that more clarity is required on the part of those developing and buying houses, in order to understand the dynamics of sector, what drives it, and how it is compared with those abroad? According to him all these will aid reporting of the sector better .