Nigeria’s Real Estate Industry has witnessed increased growth and evolution, which offered opportunities and bore challenges to the industry stakeholders (developers and realtors), investors, homeowners, and the industry itself, over time.
At the commencement of 2024, this has become more intense, especially as government policies, aimed at regulating the industry, are ever-increasing and prevailing.
It is therefore important to highlight the likely real estate trends of 2024 to guide GIDI’s stakeholders and clients as to the development of real estate and investment in Nigeria.
In this article, I attempted to shed light on this subject by highlighting the Economic state of Nigeria and how it impacts her real estate sector. I also spotlight government policy on developing of and marketing lands—titled and untitled—by real estate developers, marketers, and technological development in the industry.
Nigeria’s real estate is one of two faces, reflecting that the industry tends to the political history of the country as much as it tends to its economic history.
The Land Use Act of 1978 may provide an insight into the former, while the country’s long-held history of tumultuous economic development is a signpost for the latter.
Nigeria’s Real Estate market has been characterized by unprecedented growth which is driven by the country’s urbanization and growing real investment, with Lagos, Abuja, Rivers, and Oyo, as the destinations.
This is, however, not without the various challenges that it poses, resulting from property scarcity, a large disparity between the middle and lower class, infrastructural and housing deficit, political instability, host community relations, and government policies amongst others.
Overall, the industry looks to continue from the developmental pace it paused at, in 2023, while hanging the balance of these challenges around its neck.
Government policies have been instrumental in the industry’s development over time, from the regional era, and military era, to the Republic era. This has, however, been limited by several factors including host community settlement, funding, political instability, and problems of governmental bureaucracy amongst others.
Also, there have been numerous efforts to encourage more private sector involvement in the industry and introduce new, positive regulatory reforms into the industry.
For instance, in Lagos state, which is the prime destination of real estate in the country, developers are now mandated to register with the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) and eschew the development of untitled lands. In the same vein, marketers are now required to compulsorily register with the agency to enable them to practice real estate marketing as licensed realtors.
While this is a commendable effort, as it raises the bar against fraudsters in the industry, it also poses a challenge to the bureaucratic process of land documentation, which may result in another scam that it is supposed to curb.
In all, It is expected that this will aid fair play in the industry by regulating the industry’s terms of practice, reducing fraudulent practices, facilitating stakeholder-government engagement, and creating access to government funds, which will in turn, develop the industry in the long term.
Other states are expected to follow through, in no distant time.
In addendum to the above, it is likely that the challenges that the problems of this policy poses will not last the test time, because according to the permanent secretary of Lagos State Land Bureau in 2023, the state government is gearing towards the digitization of acquisition of land in the estate.
What this means is that the bureaucracy of acquiring and authenticating the status of lands in the state will reduce, just being scammed will.
This will also affect the industry as a whole, by improving processes that would have been difficult pre-emergence of technological incorporation in the industry.
In the end, Nigeria’s Real Estate is bound to experience growth in 2024, which is all thanks to the profitability of the industry, the government’s growing presence, and foreign investment. This, however, will be limited by scarcity, economic fluctuation, and policy development—of which regulating reforms, is an ongoing issue.
Ayorinde Ejioye is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Gidi Real Estate Investment Limited.
