The Managing Director/CEO of Propertygate Development and Investment Plc, Mr. Adetokunbo Ajayi has identified the competitive edge of the company despite the challenges facing the real estate sub-sector in Nigeria. Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting, AGM, Ajayi who listed the key growth factors. He said the company would continue to wax stronger irrespective of the challenges militating against the real estate sector.

In spite of a case pending in court, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA through its Development Control, last week, pulled down a structure owned by a a non-governmental organisation, Sustainable Health Initiative, SHI. The property which is worth N85million was located at Katampe District near Abuja City Centre.

“ If government, for example, redirects the policy on pensions funds towards long-term loanable investable funds, it will create the necessary funds that will be put into this kind of construction bank and it will yield a great effect on the whole nation. There are unclaimed dividends, huge resources. If one trillion Naira only from the pensions fund is used to invest in this long term construction development, it will change the entire country dramatically; just to use it to do our railways reconstruction and roads.

Dubai property prices fell in April as a property index in the emirate turned negative for the first time in four years. The residential prices index started declining from the second quarter of last year – in line with the fall in oil and gold prices, according to Reidin, a property information company. The index dropped about 3 per cent in April from the same period last year, Reidin said.

Environment stakeholders have called on all industrial concerns, business prompters and governments across the world to embark on sustainable use of earth resources for the betterment of mankind. The call was made during a one-day programme organised by SMEFUNDS, Carbon Credit Network in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP to commemorate this year’s Earth Day.

Immediate past Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Akon Eyakenyi took a critical look at her one-year stewardship and posited that she had laid an enduring foundation for her successors to build upon. Eyakenyi who was emotional when she received board members of the parastatals in the ministry who came to bid her farewell, noted that although she came from outside the built environment, she was embraced and supported by all.

The Lagos state government has built the first ever Material Recovering Facility, MRF in the country. The MRF is a project undertaken by West Africa Energy Group in collaboration with the Lagos State Government aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability in the state through waste recycling and creation of small scale entrepreneurial schemes in the catchment area.

Hotel Presidential, Enugu, was one of the first post-independence iconic buildings built as part of the Late Dr. Michael Okpara’s industrialisation plan for the defunct Eastern region. Now, the hotel has been concessioned to Messrs E-Hospitality Services Limited, EHSL, with a mandate to bring the hotel back to life and upgrade it to world class standards.

“The Evergreen Residences is an integrated real estate development project undertaken by Urban Shelter Limited in collaboration with the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees. “The landscape has also been transformed from clogged cluster of buildings to a collection of homes.” The Governor said Kano State Trust Fund Trustees is getting 20 housing units within the serene environment of Evergreen Residences.

Against the backdrop of earthquakes sweeping across the world, the Building Collapse and Prevention Guild, BCPG has called on the in-coming Buhari-led administration to take proactive measures to stem the rising occurrence of building collapse in Nigeria. President of the Guild, Kunle Awobodu, a builder past chairman of Lagos state chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Building, NIOB, posited that “all efforts must be geared towards saving the nation from enormous calamity in the event of earthquake in future”.

In this era of public – private partnerships, it is indeed remarkable that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC in conjunction with the Federal Government is partnering Good Homes Development Co. Ltd in the provision of affordable houses for Nigerian workers. For a start, under the arrangement, the company has commenced the construction of the initial 40,000 housing units for civil servants in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. It is expected that gradually the projects will be spread to the remaining 36 states of the federation.

Weighed down by huge debts owed its members by the three tiers of government, the Federation of Construction Industry, FOCI, the umbrella body for about 125 major construction companies operating in Nigeria, has called on the incoming Federal government to declare a state of emergency in the construction industry.

“The most important thing is the allowances of the utilisation of the retirement savings balance for the provision of a primary home. For the first time, you are now able, as a contributor, to utilise part of your balance to secure your own primary home in accordance with the guidelines to be issued by the commission.

“As a result of this, a lot of unplanned settlements and encroachments on both land and water by these immigrants have become a burden. The houses built on the Lagos lagoon overtime in the Makoko area continued unabated and soon became worrisome due to the speedy and fast encroachment on this waterway and further extension towards the PHCN high tension cable on the lagoon. Consequently, the ministry found it expedient to undertake a study of this development and tagged it ‘Houses on Water’,”

Cornerstone Real Estate Limited has taken its operations beyond the shores of Nigeria. The Lagos-based real estate development company said it is now in a position to buy, sell, lease or manage properties for Nigerians seeking such services in any part of the United States of America. The Chairman of the company, Mr. Lanre Okupe disclosed this last week at the investors tour of Cornerstone’s Oregun Housing Scheme located in Ikeja.