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The survey by the BIFM Nigeria group aims to gain a full picture of the FM sector confidence by canvassing the views of its senior decision makers as well as the teams delivering those services.

The survey, which will be opened until June 8, will ask for opinion on current business performance, the outlook for the coming months, and individual career prospects of people working within facilities services organisations, large or small, at all levels and encompassing all roles.

The Chairperson, BIFM Nigeria, Wale Odufalu, said that information was key to making strategic decisions, adding that with the right information, uncertainty would be reduced, helping organisations to make more informed decisions.

“Unfortunately, the lack of industry data is one of the challenges faced in the FM industry in Nigeria. BIFM Nigeria believes that the BCM will provide valuable insight and value to FM professionals and the business community on the business outlook for the next 12 months as it garners opinion from industry players at different levels from both the client side and the supply side of FM,” she explained.

The BIFM Research and Information Manager, Peter Brogan, stated that on completion, the BCM would be able to show how confident organisations were about the prospects of the FM industry in the country and how the existing performance of facilities management professionals were rated within the market.

“This is a very exciting project for us,” he said.

According to Odufalu, the BIFM community group in the country is set up to support the growing FM industry and an increased number of professionals from across the country.

She said, “With the BIFM supporting a business confidence monitor in Nigeria, it demonstrates the respect of the existing FM market as well as the potential growth opportunities for the sector. We are also delighted to have the support of the leading business publication in the country, BusinessDay.

“Its informative editorials, news and reports have commented on various areas of the economy such as construction, infrastructure, maritime, agriculture, and oil and gas, to mention a few. It is, therefore, a great delight to see this respected media partner coming on board to work with the facilities management sector in Nigeria.”

PUNCH.

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Most, however, are Federal Government buildings which have remained empty since the government moved from Lagos to Abuja. These buildings include the 25 storey Federal Secretariat, that was later known as Defence House, the Cabinet Office at Moloney Street, the Legislature Buildings in Race Course, NET Building on the Marina, Federal Secretariat which was to be turned into flats so that our foreign domiciled professionals could come home and would have somewhere to stay. They were to be sold to returning Nigerian professionals. There are so many others that I do not wish to list all of them here.

Lagos State Government is making a reversionary claim on these and other federal properties. The Muhammadu Buhari Administration is almost unique in having a good working relationship with Lagos since both the government power in Abuja and Lagos State administration are APC. But it will be invidious if these properties went to Lagos State and ended the way many Lagos State properties have so far ended: especially in Ikoyi where the properties have ended up in private hands of members of the ruling party in Lagos. It cannot be beyond the imagination of both the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government to find a transparent way to deal with these matters. Mr. Dimeji Bankole, the former Speaker, at less than 40 years old, was able, according to him, to buy the NET building on the Marina. There are too many politicians who use office to feather bed their nests. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Bankole, a former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, about his source of funds: i.e. that it came from his father. There are well tested methods of proving such a claim.

President Buhari-led Government should be able to make simple rules about selling these buildings or forming co-operation with private estate agents or investors, first, to restore the buildings and let them out at commercial prices. This will end the constant rumours that private well placed political juggernauts have cornered this aspect of land acquisition in Lagos. Commentators point at the old Ministry of Works at the junction of Kings Way and Glover which is going up now as a five star hotel. It is suspected that this and other buildings on choice sites have been ‘sold’ to political leaders.

Nigeria is short of nurses. Yet two of the buildings which used to be used as Nursing Schools, one opposite the Island Maternity Hospital, the other opposite Creek Hospital, are no longer Nursing Schools. The buildings are empty waiting for further development by politicians who have acquired them. I cannot think of a better site for Nursing Schools than these two sites and the land surrounding them. These buildings should be returned and used for their original purposes.

Now, to the question of reversionary rights of Lagos State for Federal Government Buildings. I do not know what the legal position is but I can guess at the political implications. Nigeria is not the only country where its capital has moved from one city to another, Philadelphia was once the capital city of the United States, Sydney of Australia, Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire, Johannesburg of South Africa, etc. Justice Akinola Aguda, who recommended the move of the capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja, had suggested a joint committee on the disposal of assets. When a new state has been created from existing ones, an asset committee is usually set up (I must say that sometimes these committees cause more problems than they solve). There was such a committee set up between the Federal and Lagos State Government when Abuja was created. The Federal Government attitude was governed by a concern that Lagos, a fledgling state, should move its focus to Ikeja and other environs or so the Federal Government thought. It soon became clear that the Federal Government was wrong and that Lagos had every intention of taking up any and every property not in use by the Federal Government, including areas which by law and long practice had also been federal territory i.e. the littoral areas of Lagos, the areas adjacent to NEPA Electricity pylons, areas of either side of rivers, the Federal Government had declared to be waterways and a plethora of regulations which no doubt gave the Federal Government rights in areas that were to be contested by the Lagos State government and indeed by other littoral states.

A federation is made up of the three arms of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, each working independently of one another yet curiously dependent on one another. When issues of jurisdiction arise, the judiciary settles the matter where the law may not have been as precise as necessary: or may, by its pronouncement, reinforce an existing practice or order a new one. These cases of jurisdiction and ownership have been through the law court but we still have a problem. Has Lagos State a reversionary interest in Federal Government property left unoccupied in Lagos? How about the other 35 states comprising the federal government on whose behalf these properties were developed? A Federal Government property in Lagos belongs to the 36 federating units and when decisions are made about its disposal, it is the decision of all the states. But Lagos claims a peculiarity not common in other states. Lagos claims that the land of the government never belonged to the Federal Government, that all land belongs to the Idejo White caps Chief and their claim of reversionary interest is on behest of the chiefs. There is some merit in this argument but most of it is sophistry. Lagos was a colony seized by war. Land rights diminished after any conquest. Moreover, the claim of Lagos State for reversionary interest is in no way different from claims other states could make after the 1914 Amalgamation. There are other enclaves in Nigeria which were also colonies – Degema, Calabar – and land rights in these colonies were not dissimilar to those of Lagos.

When a problem arises, the best thing is to find a solution not to compound the problem by raising other complexities. The government should set up a task force to clear up the mess; give the tax force clear guidelines, for example, avoiding selling to politicians and their allies. A task force should rehabilitate most of the buildings and let them out at commercial rates; (and avoid the obvious temptation of buying land and property at cheap prices and making a killing from such purchases). The APC and the PDP are full of such men; for example buying places such as the schools of Nursing, dentistry, radiology, etc. These properties should be returned to their former function. They must not be subject of high rise hotel, etc. Where is the housing development for low and medium income earners? Lagos now has workers who leave home at 4a.m. and return by midnight. What kind of life is that? Those who have used their position in power to acquire more than one property should be stripped of the excess. The Federal Secretariat should be completed as flats and sold to those who are chosen by lottery at reasonable prices. People forget that Alhaji Lateef Jakande sold houses in Lagos and Abuja at N30,000 each. We may laugh at the quality of those houses (which have all been improved) but not at their location or their utility or their purchase pulling whole families out of poverty.

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There are different levels of participation in this sector. There are small players and big players. Determine what category of the populace you are going to serve, high-end, middle-end or low-end earners? You definitely cannot serve all categories of the populace. Your investment capacity may also determine which sector of the populace you can service.

Whichever way you choose to come in and operate, there is an assurance that you will find your own landing pad and earn some reasonable profit from your investment.

However, it requires that you take cognizance of certain guidelines in order to start and operate a successful real estate business in Nigeria.

So what tips do you need in order to do so? Here are ten of such tips.

1. Do some research on the terrain of real estate in Nigeria
Just as you have to carry out a thorough research on any business you are starting, you need to do so in this sector. How does the sector work? Who are the big players? What exactly do they do? How do they serve their clients? What laws guide operations in the city/state where you want to operate in Nigeria? And so on. Your research may include learning from those whose real estate business are thriving. You can get books on real estate business or follow a mentor in real estate. Getting adequate information will feed you with the preliminary information you need to succeed.

2. Save up Some Money
If you did your research well you must have known the minimum amount of money it will require to get you started depending on the scale at which you choose to start. It is advised that you don’t take a loan to start a business because of the uncertainties that may arise when starting a business

3. Write your business plan
You are not yet in business if you don’t have a written plan. It shows you where you are going and how to get there and if it is viable to go there in the first place. Let your business plan include your business goals, units of the business, stages of growth, source of funds and every other relevant thing that will get you focused on your goal. If your business plan is well written, you may attract investors.

4. Make your real estate business legal and recognized
Business registration is important, especially in this sector. You must register with CAC – Corporate Affairs Commission and get a certificate to operate as a business. There are also associations and agencies that regulate real estate operations in Nigeria. For example, REDAN – Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria.

5. Get a well-equipped office facility
This is critical to your business success. The image you project will tell whether your would-be clients can trust their investments in your hands. You cannot be a player in the real estate sector and have your office in a shanty. You must get a good office facility and ensure that it is well furnished. Although this is necessary, you also must be careful where the office is located as paying too much on rent can eat too deep into what profits should have been ploughed back into the business for expansion.

6. Hire professionals
This is a business and it is definitely not one you can run alone, even if you are the one with the idea for the business. You will need the service of professionals to carry out daily operations so that things can move seamlessly. Office and field staff, marketers, engineers, architects, electricians, surveyors, and the rest of them. Apart from the office and field staff, others can be hired on a contract basis.

7. Seek investment
Real estate business is capital intensive and requires huge investment. If you do not have enough it is imperative that you seek investors who can partner with you. You can look for equity investors or talk to mortgage or commercial banks for long term loans that can give you enough leverage at the start and accelerate growth.

8. Get landed properties
There are different ways of playing in this sector. You can be an agent or developer. If you are into development, you need to get landed properties and start actual construction. Some real estate operators re-sell some portions of the land to clients and help them build and build other portions and sell houses out rightly. How do you intend to do yours? You must decide.

9. Open a real estate website
It is no longer news that not having a website for your business is digging the grave of that business from the onset. Quite a number of the people you might want to serve are likely to be checking out the internet for credible real estate companies they can do business with. Hire the service of a website designer and SEO consultant to get a good website running. The work of the SEO consultant is to ensure that your site ranks high in search engine searches. Have a functional and interactive website where prospective clients can make enquiries and see photos of available options of property when you begin to have them or likely ones that would come up later. Also ensure that the site has contact information and someone is available to monitor and respond promptly to enquiries.

10. Create Some branded stuffs
There should be days of the week where you (and your staff) will be dressed in branded shirts. Your marketers should often wear the branded shirts for marketing purposes. If you have cars, brand them in the name of your company. You should also have other branded materials as souvenir to give to prospective clients who come in to make enquiries.

One additional thing you will also have to do is to advertise. You must blow your trumpet and announce to the real estate buying market that you are here and here to stay. Announce your arrival in the real estate market. Use handbills, local/national newspapers, real estate journals, radio, television and as much as your budget can permit to advertise. Bottom line is, don’t wink in darkness. If you do, no one else will notice except you.

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