Government at all levels should urgently come up with policies aimed at reviving the depressed Nigerian business environment and the economy. The policies geared towards housing and property development should have the masses as their core targets.
Simply put, a depressed economy is an economy that is largely characterised with macroeconomic imbalances, thereby causing the dependent business units of the economy to suffer setbacks, capital shock and shortage for the needed investments to drive economic growth and development.
Globally, the entire value chain of the real estate sector is capital-intensive; making it to depend largely on the macroeconomic trajectory of national and international economies. In a normal economic situation, mortgage banks and other financial institutions ought to be the major source and provider of capital for key sectors of the economy, including real estate.
Real estate financing in Nigeria today is increasingly becoming difficult, especially for big projects that requir a lot of capital. Even for small scale real estate projects, the present Nigerian economy trajectory does not spare any investor when it comes to paucity of funds.
Practitioners in the real estate value chain cannot perform optimally with little or no access to finance for their businesses. The high interest and other macroeconomic indicators are all headwinds affecting the real estate business in Nigeria. Financing real estate in a depressed economy is actually a big task to all the industry stakeholders. The macroeconomic instability does not give room for the stakeholders, including the government to plan and get results.
In addressing the challenges bedeviling the real estate sector in Nigeria, government has a pivotal role to play in opening investment windows that will allow access to finance.
The insecurity challenge in Nigeria today is a major concern for both big and small business entities. Security plays a major role in the overall business environment; no business survives in an atmosphere of chaos, disorder and insecurity.
ESV Musa Tanimu Jibrin, an estate surveyor and valuer, resides in Kaduna.
