Realtors at MIPIM see opportunity in Nigeria Market

Real Estate developers across the world have been charged to see the 16 million housing deficit in Nigeria as a golden opportunity to invest.

According to a statement, Vice Chairman of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, Ronald Chagoury Jr and promoters of Eko Atlantic City (EAC) project, said at a workshop session at Premier Real Estate Event in France that it was time for international companies to take a much closer look at investment potential in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria.

To drive home this point, the developers and city planners of Eko Atlantic city in Lagos, Nigeria, presented a specialized case study of the project to an audience of real estate experts and investors at  the Marché International des Professionals d’Immobilier (MIPIM), the world’s leading property market, held every year at Cannes in the South of France.

The four day MIPIM event brought together the most influential players from all property sectors – office, residential, retail, healthcare, sport, logistics and industrial, offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects and sources of capital worldwide.

Chagoury Jr told the audience, “If you can just get over some of the perception issues for Nigeria and if you can look at the market as it actually is, you will automatically have an advantage over everyone else.

“Nigeria is now the continent’s largest economy and has a rapidly growing population. “We have a need for everything. The key ingredients for success are being present, consistency and quality”.

Delivering a presentation called ‘Sub-Saharan Africa- Let There Be Light’, Chagoury explained that the real-estate sector was desperately short of housing. ‘We have a shortage of 16 million homes in Nigeria with a shortfall of five million homes in Lagos alone’, he said.

He informed the workshop participants that Eko Atlantic will total ten million square metres of land reclaimed from the sea that will become home to 250,000 residents with 150,000 commuters.

Chagoury say that 90 per cent of the infrastructure at the EAC will be completed by the end of the year.

“Eko Atlantic is one hundred per cent privately funded. It is a registered Free Zone. Eko Atlantic will have reliable 24/7 utilities such as an independent natural gas power plant, independent water and sewage treatment plants, and a state-of-the-art fibre optic network,” he said.

On his part, Chairman of JLL for Sub-Saharan Africa, Mark Bradford, said, “For a lot of people, it was pretty eye opening to see the scale and ambition of the project and I think that Eko Atlantic should almost become a marketing tool for the potential of real estate in the country because it is such an outstanding example.

“It’s the pinnacle really of ambition on the continent and definitely something that more people should get to learn about”.

Managing Director of Projects Ducain Forbes Ltd, John Okonkwo, said, “It was one of the few times I have seen people focused on the positives of Sub-Saharan African other than all the normal issues of conflict, corruption and fraud.’ Said

“There is no doubt that the international momentum now is in Africa’s favour. The workshop was designed as an interactive ‘How to’ toolkit for anyone looking at the region: investors, developers, brokers, consultants, service firms and hotel and tourism operators.

“Eko Atlantic is in part showcasing what is possible in Africa. It showcases that very large ticket investments can be done successfully at an international quality standard in Africa.”

Source – TheGuardian