Insufficient Funds Hamper Real Estate Development – Mabinuori

Mr. Lanre Mabinuori the Project Director of Prime Exchange Limited, a real estate development company says paucity of funds is one of the major factors militating against massive property development in the country. He said this during a seminar for the company’s marketing network team in Lagos on Saturday.

Mabinuori, who said many banks were not willing to lend to estate developers, added that a few that were willing to do so attached stringent conditions, which did not make such loans attractive.

“One expects that if there is one industry the banks must help to develop, it should be the estate development and management industry, but this is not so. A few of them that show interest to help always attach stringent conditions to any loan they are granting, which at the end of the day makes it unattractive,” he said.

Mabinuori, who equally pointed out that there was the need to review the Land Use Act, which bestows ownership of all land in a particular state on the government, stressed that the time had come for the ownership of landed property to move from the current system of leasehold to freehold.

He stated, “The lifespan of every land one buys is 99 years. And at the end of the 99th year, the land reverts back to the government. One has to go back to the government in order to re-possess the land.

“The government may decide what to do with the land, whether to give it back to you or to do something else with it. This is called leasehold as against freehold, which allows one to own such land for life.”

Talking about the advantage of buying land from estate owners/developers, he said this allowed for controlled development of one’s property and also ensured its proper documentation.

He explained that Prime Exchange, apart from aggregating real estate projects across the country, added that the company was also empowering Nigerians through its multi-level estate marketing strategy, which enables them to make money even from the comfort of their homes.

“We have always told graduates who are searching for white collar jobs that are non-existent to join the multi-level estate marketing team. On every plot of land they sell, they will earn commission, and this does not stop them from doing other things,” Mabinuori said.

While decrying the presence of quacks in the industry, he stated that there was the need for anyone intending to come into real estate development to go through requisite training so as to be able to perform optimally and professionally.

Apart from having estates in Ofada, Igbesa, Agbara and Mowe, all in Ogun State, Mabinuori said the company also had some projects in Abuja and Lekki axis of Lagos State.