Experts Urge Nigeria To Focus More On Real Estate

They believe the sector has great potential as it contributed about N7 trillion to the economy in the last three quarters of 2022

To increase the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Managing Director, PR Africa International, Adedapo Adelegan, has charged members of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), Nigeria chapter to actively project and market Nigeria’s opportunities in the real estate to the global community.

He noted that the nation is a $500 billion economy with potential in states like Lagos boasting of $200 billion in GDP, hence the need for the association to explore opportunities available in the real estate sector. Nigeria’s real estate sector contributed about N7 trillion to the economy in terms of value of transactions in the last three quarters of 2022.

Adelegan gave the charge at the yearly FIABCI general meeting and induction ceremony of 41 new members in Lagos. Speaking at the event called ‘Real Estate, Leadership and Branding’, Adelegan, who was the guest speaker, observed that despite the challenges experienced in the sector, ranging from infrastructure deficit, mortgage financing issue and general economic downturn, growth in real estate is driven by urbanisation, population expansion, increased economic activities and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

He, therefore, urged FIABCI to influence the government to initiate policies favourable to the sector in terms of housing financing, foreclosure law, mortgage, improving access to housing and promoting alternative materials for building development. “FIABCI must take advantage of its position by becoming an ambassador for promoting our opportunities at the global level. The role of funding of housing will be a major game changer and it behoves on the FIABCI to do a global audit of some part of the world and find a workable formula for easy access to mortgage.”

“Majority of the houses in the United States of America are built with wood and you begin to wonder why we are building every house in Nigeria with concrete. FIABCI needs to begin to break boundaries, work with other international organisations on how they do it. Why can’t we build estates with woods for our young graduates and why must it be cement houses. We can build houses with muds and woods,” he asked.

Adelegan said that the association must begin to see itself as a body that can help in reengineering the society to provide inclusion, wealth and lead people to higher productivity. He also hoped that the association will improve its sphere of influence by encouraging members to develop critical skills like business acumen, communications skill, encourage interaction with other businessmen, human resource management, understand marketing and laws of negotiations