A Nigerian business investor and CEO of GSS Group, Chukwudi Ezenwa, has described real estate business as the new investment hub for smart entrepreneurs and business moguls, especially upward mobile youths looking for areas of investment.
Ezenwa, an active member of the Real Estate Association of Nigeria (REDAN), who claimed that that his association is looking to consolidate on the massive growth of the real estate business by ensuring the proper orientation of every Nigerian to the benefits of real estate business, said, over the years, “we’ve seen the revolution of the real estate business, a key example is the Lagos State government owned franchise called “Banana Island.”
Raising a poser, he said, “Did you know that a completed building in “Banana Island” cost as high as $8 million dollars? Which is why an estimated 60% of the completed buildings in Banana Island are vacant,” adding that, the most expensive real estate company is the “Eko Atlantic City” which he described as “home to the luxirious Banana Island, a new haven for top politicians and billionaires in the country.”
According to him, “Many Nigerians shy away from real estate business because it is capital intensive, however, the public sector of real estate has turned it’s focus on low-cost mass housing development”.
But on how do low-income earners and the youth get to invest in real estate and what are the profits? Ezenwa said: “No amount is too small to invest,” as he said, “a civil servant or a trader with as low as 10 per cent equity participation can invest in real estate. The government has provided some credit facilities for low-income earners, which is the same category the youth fall into.
“The National Housing fund has provided a platform that facilitates the mobilisation of funds for the provision of houses for Nigerians at affordable prices. These funds provide long term loans to mortgage institutions for the low-income earners to own their properties and benefit from the real estate sector.
“The funds further provide incentives for the capital market to invest in property development. The profit from these investments is impressive. Real estate appreciates over time and sometimes guarantees over 100 per cent profit. There are also platforms such as “shared ownership” which some private estate developers have launched.
“This platform is set up so an individual can own 10 per cent of the said property. In “shared ownership” as many as 10 different people can own one property and the returns from it are distributed respectively according to the shared percentage.”
According to him, the real estate industry is said to have the highest employment of daily labour, that solves two major issues at once. Firstly, “unemployment,” as real estate provides employment for Nigerians and lastly, he said, the reduction of the country’s Housing Deficit, according to survey done by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2019, Nigeria is expected to construct 700,000 houses annually, however, it is inversely proportional to the 100,000 houses that is being constructed annually for the past seven years.
The CEO GSS Group, Ezenwa, also informed that over the years, the potentials in the real estate sector of the Nigerian economy have not been harnessed and utilised for the mutual benefit of taxpayers and the citizens in general, as he encouraged the Federal Government to focus on establishing real estate that will be beneficiary to the average Nigerian and not luxurious estate that is only affordable to the rich.
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