Creativity will strengthen Nigeria’s real estate market
Adeyinka Adesope is the Director, Grenadines Homes. In this interview with MAUREEN IHUA-MADUENYI, he says a lot of efforts are going into addressing housing needs in the country
The housing deficit in the country is in the region of 17 million despite efforts towards providing solutions by the government and the private sector. Why is the figure not going down?
First, all of us are working together and doing something about it. I want you to also complement that data with another one, which says that Nigeria is growing at 2.8 per cent per annum. At a point, we were 160 million; we are currently at 180 million; if you check 2015, we are at 174 million and moving towards 180 million people. So, the population is not static; in the next few years say by 2025, this country will have a population of over 200 million or thereabout.
Now, are we resolving housing problems at the pace the population is growing? No. So, something drastic has to be done. The pace of the population growth is faster than the efforts of everyone put together. That’s why it seems the deficit has not been addressed.
A lot of developers in the industry are into luxury development, but the larger percentage of those who really need housing fall into the lower income cadre. Are you looking at playing in that segment of the market in the near future?
I have spoken about the opportunities in the industry, which give credence to the fact that we have needs at the bottom of the pyramid, which is the low income earners; we have at the middle and also at the top because this is the largest economy in Africa and as a result, it is an investment destination. Expatriates come in too; I am not talking about people being homeless now; the important thing is that there is a need either for investment purpose or to own a home.
At the low end, Grenadines Homes has a product for less than $100,000, about $50,000. So, we are no just looking at the top end of the class, we are also looking at affordability, but then, what sets us apart is commitment to excellence.
With the potential in the real estate sector, there will also be challenges, what are some of the challenges hampering the growth of the industry?
Personally, I don’t like talking about challenges, but then, hardly will you see any country that can be called advanced today that never had challenges. Challenges bring about the best in people and that is what people are paying you for. If the real estate sector in Nigeria is not fraught with challenges; everybody will be playing in it. So, the problems are there for us to solve because that is what people are paying for; it is not something to cry over.
People will talk about funding, but there are other creative ways to resolve it; people will talk about perfection of land titles, but there are also creative ways to resolve it. You want to talk about dearth of artisans and quality workmanship. You can’t believe that most of the artisans used in Nigeria are from Benin Republic; these are challenges but do we want to keep talking about the challenges? They are for us to resolve.
Are you not worried about the influx of foreign developers into the country?
If we want to be cynical, we will say that foreign investors coming into Nigeria are going to take the larger share of the cake we have in the real estate industry. But if we want to be honest with ourselves, the opportunities are there. I don’t have any negative disposition to it; we have been saying this in our company over the years that the opportunity we have in this industry is going to attract investors from all over the world and that is why even when you operate locally, you have to be positioned internationally so that someone doesn’t come all the way and render you irrelevant because you are not well positioned.
However, we should look at it as much more beneficial to all. As developers, prospective investors or aspiring homeowners, we should see it as beneficial to real estate development. What we have is competition and competition makes us better; you know that with competition you cannot just give anything to Nigerians or come up with any design or any estate and people will buy it.
You can do it for some years but it is just a matter of time and nobody will patronise you because people are coming from all over the world to offer something different. Competition brings out the best in an industry; it is happening in banking and even in the media. That is what we are seeing now.
I look at it from the positive aspect, it will make the industry smarter in the way we build; it will prevent or eliminate waste because we are going to get smarter. When there is competition, you have to think and some of them coming into the market get their loans at one digit interest rate and then you are getting yours at 20 per cent; you have to think if you must win.
You can’t even compromise; I see it as a blessing to those who will be buying too. The prices of housing will be dropping and developers will also get better by coming up with functional and sustainable houses and designs. That is how we can begin to change the landscape.
That is the only way we can have a future like Dubai, because there, you see developers coming in all the way from Europe, Asia and America to drop their quota in the sector, and at the end, you have a beautiful environment.
PUNCH.
