•REVOLUTIONPLUS Property Coy. MD
Dr Bamidele Onalaja is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of RevolutionPlus Property Development Company. He’s one of the top property players in Nigeria. In the last few years his impact in the sector has been felt and has filled a lot of vacuum in the sector. A few days ago, City People team visited his Ikeja office and he told us point black the secret of his success of the years, especially last year. He also told us his many plans this year.
After the review of the previous year, what are your assessments and plans for the year 2021?
The year 2020 that just ended was the year of Covid-19 for the whole world. Most of the sectors and not just real estate almost crashed. But Revolutionplus company last year was one of our best years. We discovered that when the pandemic started, most of our offices in the diaspora were the busiest because many Nigerians wanted to come back home since they didn’t know where things were headed so they contacted us. So we did well in the international market in the year 2020. The local market in Nigeria also did very well but overall the real estate market benefited so much from the pandemic and not only Revolutionplus company due to lockdown and all. 2020 was our best year since we started the company. So we thank God.
This is a new year and I can tell authoritatively that this year is for expansion. We are moving to the South South, South East; we are taking over everywhere. This first quarter we are opening our Port Harcourt and Uyo offices. We are also opening in the second quarter our Osun, Akure and Ondo offices. We are also rebranding our Abuja office and we are moving into the north. We are also moving in the third quarter towards Owerri, Enugu and Onitsha. Internationally, we are opening up in Houston, Maryland, Texas and in London. We want to help those in diaspora get access to properties.
In Lagos alone, we want to start 5 new housing estates. Also in Abeokuta, Ibadan have nothing less than 3 new estates. We are also going to be working on completing our existing estate. We have to expand because our clientele base has grown to over 80% in 2020, into this new year. We also have a new estate at Lekki, Flourish Apartment and Terraces which is fast becoming one of the best estates there. With 30% deposit, you can become a landlord there easily.
What makes your company different from other real estate companies out there?
Revolutionplus is unique because of our core values which are trust, integrity and timelines. Those are what have been living and working on since the 6 years of our establishment. We deliver on our promises unlike many real estate companies out there. We give value database to your investment because we help improve your investment and that is why people trust us. We are the most trusted brand in Nigeria. I am the Chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association, Lagos Chapter. I know my people well. I know the people that are trust worthy and I also know some of those that are not as much. I’m the first Chairman for Lagos chapter. It has not been easy because we had to start from scratch although we had some support from South-South brothers who helped in the organization of the association. They gave us some of the databases. There are other states in South-West that they also helped. They have been very supportive. Both the Chairman and Secretary. This is our fifth month and our membership has grown with different developers who are competitive. Our focus is to bring growth in the real estate sector in Lagos.
You were present at the end of the year award that we did the at Oriental Hotel. It was used to thank the government for their support.
What do you think the government can do to improve the real estate sector in Lagos?
Well, one of the things they can do which they are already doing, one of the things we face in Lagos is documentations e.g. C of O which has now been digitalized with over 500 people working day and night to ensure that people get their documents in due time.
Another thing the government can do for developers is to give us land to develop. We are already working on it. We want to build about 100 homes in every local government we want to build homes that won’t be more than 5 million naira to own. All we need is the government to partner with us in giving us land. We have our resources and money to build the home everyone can afford.
