•LAGOS Housing Expert, DEBO ADEJANA
Debo Adejana is the Managing Director of Realty Point Limited, one of Nigeria’s finest real estate company. The company is primarily involved in the supply side of the industry, with a strong presence in real estate development, investment, training/consultancy, marketing syndication and owns the popular trademark “sack your landlord”.
Debo is an alumnus of Lagos business school, having attended the owner manager’s programme, Foundation President of Prime Asset Housing Cooperative Multipurpose Society till 2016. He served the South West zone of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), as Treasurer (from 2009 to 2012) and vice chairman (2012- 2015). He currently serves as the vice chairman, Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce Construction and Real Estate Sector Group and Registrar.
He is a celebrated subject matter expert, author, blogger, speaker, radio host and Tony Elemelu Foundation mentor (2016). He lectures Marketing of Housing Development Master’s Students of the University of Lagos and other profit and nonprofit organizations. He has a budding interest in social Housing provision. A member of Heinrich Boll Stiftung & arctic housing for low-income groups in Lagos state working group Mr. Debo is a humorous, fun loving, focused and very hard working individual who has a way with words. His clients find in him a very knowledgeable, dependable, honest, innovation and die-hard professional with excellent service culture. Last week, City People’s ISAAC ABIMBADE, chatted him up on the issues of real estate; one of them is genuineness of land in Ibeju Lekki. Read on.
As an expert in the sector. You have attended fora and seminars in Nigeria and beyond. What is your assessment on Nigeria real estate last year?
There was nothing really concrete that happened. There wasn’t so much movement and activities. That’s the general view.
What’s your assessment for 2018?
Well, we are expecting that this year will be better than 2017, for some reasons. No1, we have gotten out of recession. Currently, oil price is on the rise; meaning that our external reserve, if well managed should be getting better and we should start having high naira value. All of these speak the fact that business will be better this year. Most of the projects of federal government will be completed this year and it is also a campaign year; a year to election. Traditionally, a lot of money will exchange hands.
You said real estate was affected by the economic meltdown we experienced but there were activities in buying and selling, in the area of land transactions especially?
If you look at it majorly, the land transactions that went on last year, a great percentage of those transactions may be regretted later in the future.
What I mean by that is, some of them are not sustainable. The Ibeju Lekki particularly accounts for most of what we are talking about and government keep shouting everyday people are encroaching on their acquired land and people should be wary of those selling land to them.
So, these people were able to offer them too good offers and you know our people! ….wether to say we are gullible or I should say many lack industry experience; they will just jump at the offer. They made them believe they were properties that will appreciate soon. But in 3 to 4 years time, they will realize they have no land. Another one is that, ordinarily in real estate as a good player, if my resource dwindle, I am expected to move lower.
So, people that are buying property worth 60 millions before, if they suddenly see a 10 million land, they will buy it because they are not getting money the way they used to. So they will go to the next cadre and that’s why landed properties transactions recorded high level of patronages last year because many downgraded their investment last year; that is if they can’t afford Ikoyi, I will buy land at any affordable location.
Most of the landed properties in Ibeju Lekki may not be able to have good title and once it doesn’t have this, its a challenge. So wherever people are buying now is just vicious, these people will make their money and they will say the excision is under processing and this excision may never come.
What is your advice?
People should be careful and they should do their due diligence whenever they are doing real estate investment. So they need to confirm and reconfirm before any transaction.
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