IS REAL ESTATE BUSINESS NIGERIA’S NEXT GOLDMINE?

I am a regular reader of the Punch newspaper especially on weekends when I have more time to peruse the pages of a newspaper so, stumbling on an interview report titled “ Real estate business is Nigeria’s next goldmine” was a delight.

If you have been following us for some time now, you know that our answer to whether real estate business is Nigeria’s next goldmine will be in the affirmative. That was why reading Mr. Oluseyi Oyesola’s reply to a follow up question from Rasheed Bisiriyu, a Punch newspaper reporter repeated verbatim below was not a supprise. Read this Question: “Are you trying to say the next place to move to is the real estate?” Answer: “I tell you there is nowhere else like real estate. The richest men in the world, if you look at their wealth, the bulk of it comes from the real estates. I can’t remember exactly now but I know about 90 per cent of the world’s richest men thrive on real estates. People whose wealth are phenomenal and would last about four generations without effort are in real estate. I tell you it is an exodus in

Nigeria. The capital market was very interesting we all knew it was seasonal. We all knew that some of the companies have fundamentals but how well are the fundamentals? Principally, how many of them have good fundamentals? I can tell you the core people that were doing capital market still have their stock of real estate that they are doing.”

This summarises my opinion, real estate is the next thing in Nigeria. It has been a major one the developed-world over but just about to take it rightful place in

Nigeria. People have made fortunes in other sectors of the economy but it is now time to make a kill in the real estate sector. Folks will “suddenly” become millionaires. Making tens or even hundreds of millions will become a child’s play. This will be possible in the short to medium term from now because there exist a huge gap between demand and supply. That can be buttressed with the statistics that gets thrown in our faces about the shortage of housing in

Nigeria. I understand it is about 16million. I actually can not agree less with Mr. Oyesola, here is a goldmine about to go off the hook. I believe it so much that sometimes I think I have been brain washed. I am as sure of it as I am that my name is Gbadebo.

When a sector of the economy gets on the march like this, the earlier you fall inline the better. There is money to be made in every area of real estate in this country. You can begin to enjoy the “dividend” of your investment in real estate. You can play in it with no money down or with all the funds you can get in the world. It can serve for short, medium or long term investment goal, part-time or full blast.

I suggest you position yourself to explore some of the following areas:

Infrastructural Development: the bane of real estate sporadic development in this country is the poor state of our infrastructure. Things like good roads and drainages are very scarce and that is why we have a lot of development in “slumpy” clusters in developing worlds like ours. Initiatives like “Build, Operate and Transfer” will become more and more relevant and the tool of serious minded government in delivering on their manifesto promises. Private individuals will make more money from this angle. Talk about the Engineers, Construction Equipment Hiring Companies, Land and Quantity Surveyors, etc

Estate Developments: Building of houses is big business, particularly when you do it for the people at the bottom of the pyramid, I mean the over 70% of the population considered poor. It has been discovered that the wealth of the world resides with the poor and there is no better way to get it from them than to give them basic value (shelter) in exchange for their money.

Nigeria has about 16million gap to fill in that regard and the figure keeps growing. What an opportunity!

Agency/Property or Facility Management: This will be the ideal focus for someone without so much money. You can actually start your Agency/Property or Facility Management practice with little or no money. As an Agent, you act as a broker linking your principal with the buyer/seller, Owner/Tenant, whatever the case may be for a fee. Facility management is the management of building, estates which encompasses both building fabric and services. The services are sometimes considered to be divided into “hard services” and “soft services.” Hard services include such things as ensuring that a building’s air conditioning is operating efficiently, reliably, safely and legally. Soft services include such things as ensuring that the building is cleaned properly and regularly or monitoring the performance of contractors (e.g. builders, electricians). The term “facility management” is similar to “property management” but often applied only to larger and/or commercial properties where the management and operation is more complex. You can be trained formally or informally for these things depending on how far you want to take your game.

Mortgage: Mortgage provision fuels real estate all over the world and there are a number of disciplines associated with providing mortgages. There is the mortgage broker, the appraisal, the credit bureau or credit listing outfit, the banker e.t.c

Training: Training is always a continuous thing, more so because of the boom about to be experienced a lot of people will need adequate training to fit in and you will be in big business as a provider of the organised knowledge being sought.

There are other areas that space will not allow me to talk about, for example a lot of opportunities exist in the hospitality industry.

To take advantage of these things you may have to acquire relevant training first. Get Trained! You can’t risk not been prepared for the task ahead, don’t rubbish your name in quackery.

You can get in touch with our School of Estate ™ to get the kind of training required. The second batch of our Entrepreneurial Class just started lecture August 2, 2008 and should be rounding up in another seven (7) weeks. Join now, while you still have the chance and prepare yourself. Remember the saying of a Wiseman “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Get lucky, because you need it!

QUOTE(S)“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” –G.K. Chesterton“The person who is not hungry says that the coconut has a hard shell.” — African Tribal Saying

“Speak in anger and you’ll give the greatest speech you’ll ever regret.” – Anonymous