THE Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PropertyPro.ng, Dapo Eludire, has said that Nigerians spend over 40 per cent of their annual income paying rent.
Eludire, who spoke during a webinar organised by TechCabal on May 6, 2022, on Nigeria’s property tech industry, explained that buying a property is an emotional investment, to show how well one is doing in life.
While he stressed the importance of this factor, the real estate entrepreneur noted that it takes some property investors up to 30 years before settling in their homes.
He said, “I would say that enabling the private sector to provide more liquidity in the industry is always an expensive venture, whether you are buying or renting an apartment. People use over 40 per cent of their annual earnings to rent an apartment. They have to work for like 30 years before they buy their first houses. Why does that have to happen?
“In other countries, you can actually buy your property through mortgage at rates that are affordable. Here, we are experiencing 19 per cent and in some cases 25 per cent per annum. That is if the landlord is not even asking for two years’ rent.”
Proffering a solution to the problem, he said creating liquidity is would allow the real estate to boom.
Eludire, who flashed back to the COVID-19 pandemic, said that it was initially chaotic for developers to break even before things began to pick up. He noted that the pandemic helped realtors sell more as many traditional agents migrated online, though growth slowed after 2020.
“Since everything is back to normal, expectations, or deliverables in terms of leads, have dropped. What we did was to partner with complementary services, like the finance industry, in terms of mortgage and rent financing,” the real estate boss explained.
The founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Architect of Seventh Space, Kanyinsade Ademuson, contributing to the discourse, said that the housing crisis was a global phenomenon and if the right regulations and old building practices can be abolished, the sector would experience growth.
“We need to figure a way that construction will drive down cost and take advantage of underutilised land by being able to build houses that are moveable within the long term, such that land can be rented and the homes that are built are starter homes rather than final renting places. There is a need for a lot of education, and design across board. A lot of funding has to go into the research, taking advantage of one of the 100 empty plots of land in Lekki which are owned but empty,” he stressed.
Source : ICIR
