•Property Developer, Chief SAMUEL ODINAMADU
Chief Samuel Odinamadu is one of the biggest property developers in Lekki-Ajah axis. He’s the MD/CEO of SKC properties Ltd. He has built a lot of houses, especially around Lagos.
Presently, his housing estates have become hot cakes where celebrities who desire luxury, comfort and quality go to buy houses.
Chief Samuel delved into real estate about 4 years ago to fulfill his long term ambition. He used to sell electronics products in Alaba market in Lagos before he went fully into housing construction. Today, he has become one of the best hands in that sector.
Few days ago, he spoke to City People Head of Real Estate Desk, ISAAC ABIMBADE, and City People Online TV editor, Nurudeen Salisu, about his business.
Can you tell us more about your property firm, SKC properties Ltd
My name is Chief Samuel Odinamadu. I’m the CEO of SKC Properties Ltd. This property is called SKC Court 6. We are into real estate business and it’s about 3 years now.
What does SKC means?
It’s a family business. It’s the combination of my name and my children. That’s where we got the name from.
How challenging was real estate when you started?
I started small. I didn’t start with big project; I started with just 3 to 4 houses but today, you can see we have built more than enough.
When did real estate start for you?
I started in 2016, 3 years ago.
When you started this business 3 years ago, how challenging was it?
When I said 3 years, it means I joined the business 3 years ago, but I have a lot of properties before that time.
The major challenge I had is, the business requires a lot of cash..
One thing that attracted us when we came into your estate was the good attention you pay into details in making sure you have a good structure. How were you able to achieve this beautiful estate?
When something is good, everybody will appreciate it. Since I built this new project, everybody has been commending me and some say they love it. I believe in quality and make little profit, move on to another one.
Can you tell us more about this project?
We have terrace, selling for 38 million naira. Our semidetached is 45 million naira. It’s almost sold out. The terrace is 4 bedroom.
Most of our houses comes in 4 bedrooms.
Where else do you have property?
We have estates around Lagos but our new project we are moving to is Oral estate, not too far from here. It’s around Ikota.
What can government do to ease some of your burdens, especially the burden of infrastructure?
When I got to this place, it was so busy, the whole place was filled up with water. I had to spend a whole lot of money to do the sand filling and some others things. I fixed the road and that’s why today, we can have other developers coming here to build houses. I deserve awards for this because I singlehandedly opened up this place. Government should help us with good roads. They should also try to give us loan. They should give us loan with low interest rates. All these will help our business because it needs a lot of money to run.
For now, we are not bother about profit; we want to project our name. We are not after profit making. As you can see, we have a new transformer, donated by myself. We are not bothered about profit now, but name. When it’s time, our name will start ringing bell and doors will open for us when you hear the name SKC properties and it will be easy for people to subscribe with us.
Are you charging other developers for the infrastructure you provide?
I won’t. This estate also have its own industrial borehole and a whole lot more.
What is the payment plan like because there are people who can’t pay all this money at once?
Of course, we do 30 percent down payments. But this applies to our new project. People have almost ‘consumed’ this court 6. Our new project at Oral estate in Ikota is massive and work will start there at the end of this month.
In few years time, where do you think your firm, SKC would be?
I believe in the next 4 years, maybe I will be building Skyscrapers.
Are you saying SKC Homes is the ideal houses for Lagos celebrities who desire luxury?
Yes. That’s why you guys are here to project what we have here. I believe in no time, people will start hearing my name. Many people even thought we have been in business for many years because of what we build. But we are just 3 years in the market. I believe in 4 years time, we should be able to do over 500 buildings.
Do you have plan for the average income earners who will want a low cost housing?
Yes, of course, but not now.
Before real estate, what have you been doing?
I was into electronics business. I was in it for 25 years. The name of my company is Samtex Nigeria Limited, based in Alaba market, Lagos.
Why real estate then?
Actually, I have plazas and other big properties around Lagos before I came into real estate. So when people see some of these properties, they would tell me to go into property business because they saw the flare in me. I love to build houses. I also want to add that, I will be glad if government can provide infrastructure like road, electricity, and maybe, they can help us sandfill some of this land and sell to us at low cost rate because some of our profits go into infrastructure.
