In this interview with Dr Barka Mshelia, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mshel Homes Limited, an estate development company in Abuja, he said some developers’ lifestyles and inflation are responsible for most of them failing to deliver houses to their clients when they should.
Mshel Homes Limited seems to have estates in many districts of Abuja, but you are a relatively young company. What’s behind the monumental growth?
At Mshel Homes Ltd., we are basically into two aspects of real estate; we sell land to people and allow them to build at their own pace. We co-develop with them. In our site and services, we are able to understand the market; and what it takes to be at the forefront.
What we have been able to do distinctively that puts us at the global level is to be able to understand the key strategic place of infrastructure development where our sites are located.
We give people the opportunity to be able to buy land and develop it themselves and to also use it for land banking; whereby a client can buy land and after some time, he/she can have good return on investment when the value of the land appreciates.
We also build houses for people, and they can subscribe through a mortgage. We are in partnership with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in order to reduce the housing deficit in Nigeria.
We also have the second part of our real estate, which is the Mshel Ultra, which takes care of the luxury brand of Mshel Homes. We have houses in highbrow areas such as Maitama, Guzape, Asokoro, Karsana, and Katampe where we sell luxury houses.
For us, the definition of luxury is the kind of new lifestyles we sell to our clients and give them an outstanding experience of what they want to have as luxury. Our luxury homes are tailored with smart home features, contemporary designs, and a very eco-friendly environment where we put green areas and very good landscaping within the estates to give them sustainable value for our clients.
We have an understanding of what it takes to build in the global space because we have our clients’ interests at heart and are looking forward to solving their housing needs. For some, it will just be shelter, for others, it will be quality living; and yet, for some, it will be luxury and a new experience. Whatever the case, we try to create affordable plans for our clients. We have affordable plan where you pay part of the money for 35 years and you pay a little difference for a period of two years.
Most of your products around the city are luxury homes, so one wonders how affordable they can be and how feasible it is to pay for a house for 35 good years?
We have affordable housing estates at Kyami and Aviation Village, Karsana and Lugbe axis, where we sell land for people and allow them to develop at their pace. In those areas, we also sell houses for as low as N25 million, which the FMBN can pay up to N15 million if you have a high contribution with them through the National Housing Fund.
We don’t just build for luxury, we also build for affordability so people can have houses. Presently in Kyami, we have commissioned 135 housing units for people to access through a mortgage.
Sometimes, when clients subscribe to houses with real estate companies like yours, at the end of the day, they don’t get their houses when they should; some wait endlessly. Do you have such experience with your clients?
We have not had that kind of experience at Mshel. When developers get this money, they begin to live large, divert the money into new projects, and travel abroad to relax, and this is people’s money.
The first key thing about any successful businessman is his ability to deliver the project before he eats his profit. For us, every naira that is paid for a property is being paid for that property, and its execution is first on our mind. And it is when the project is completed that we calculate our profit; we don’t calculate our profit at the beginning of the project when we have not completed the project.
That is one factor, and the second factor is inflation, which has caused a lot of damage. Presently, inflation is at 22%, and if you notice, an item that you are buying now at N100,000, by next year will be N122,000, so if you do not buy it, and you leave until after one year, the value of the thing depreciates.
So people take out long-term payment plans, and at the end of the day, you realise that inflation has caught up with them. Timely execution of projects is the solution to beating the inflation trap.
