The popular Real Estate Strategist, Femi Austine, who has helped elevate numerous brands in the real estate Sector in Nigeria recently said in an interview that Real Estate Players in Africa are still scratching the surface. Femi is known for his unreserved passion to see Real Estate at its purest form in Africa. He has amassed almost a decade of experience in Real Estate business management; Property acquisition, Documentation, Marketing and Sales, Customer Relationship and Infrastructural development. He is also the Prime mover of REAL ESTATE INVESTORS Platform. He was the Keynote Speaker at the Lagos Wealth Summit, 2018 at the University of Lagos.
Currently serving as the Chief Strategist for a prominent real estate company, DPkay Homes and Property Limited situate in Lagos, Femi Austine has once again proven his depth of knowledge in the practice of real estate business, more specifically, how to build a brand that sustains and outlasts trying times. He is fond of a statement that goes: be the disruptor, and not the disrupted.
Recently, Femi played a giant role in the image redemption of DPkay Homes as a wrongful execution of court order was carried out by AMCON on one of its properties on Lekki Epe Expressway.
“A brand is like a building; it takes years of experience to plan and then to build, but it doesn’t take so much effort to bring down a brand with one terrible event. This is why we have to let the public know that it was a wrongful execution so as to retain integrity we have built over the years. And we thank God for the victory” Femi Austine said.
He added “As a real estate brand, there are seven pillars that must be built in order to keep winning internally and externally, the most powerful one is the public’s perception of one’s company. No matter how good and reliable your product is, it’s not good enough until the public deem it fit to associate with it”.
The real estate strategist, who has set up a community where over 2000 Realtors carry out business dealings, was recently awarded for his outstanding performance in the real estate sector. When asked to share the 7 pillars he briefly mentioned, he went further to say, “to build a last longing real estate brand, first, you must be a law abiding player. The authenticity of your property must not be compromised. Your legal team must be extremely sound and be proactive. A land without a title is like a company without a CAC certificate; People don’t want to associate with that except for a few friends and family who probably do not know the adverse effect”.
“Other pillars are: Strategic positioning of your Properties, Excellent team of Architects and Engineers, Public Relations Team (Corporate Communications; this is where you build your perception in the minds of the people), Strategic Partnerships and unveilings to aid Marketing and Sales Intentions (Pricing Strategy, Incentives and commission for Marketers), Consistent customer Relationship and Retention Programme and last but not the least, The Account and the Administration Pillar”.
“We are yet to have a player whose pillars are in complete measure in full view of the seven pillars. We are still scratching the surface in the real estate space in Africa but there has been progressive developments over time. We can’t compare it with the last decades neither can we compare it with the new sets of well traveled and experienced developers this new decade will produce” Femi said.
Femi Austine is the Founder of The Femi Austine Company Limited; an Academy specially put together for Human capital development out of which hundreds of Entrepreneurs have been able to discover self and business opportunities and currently dominating in their various spheres.
