For many Nigerians, especially those in some Southern parts of the country, the fear of land grabbing from most times, land owners, otherwise called Omoniles, dispel them from owning property or more as the case may be.

However, the chief executive officer, CEO, Iloshe Properties and Investment Limited, Michael Fadeyi, in an exclusive chat with Vanguard noted that it was possible to own and enjoy the landed properties without the interference of the Omoniles.

Fadeyi explained that his company which became six years this April, was established out of his personal experience of living in a place as a tenant with his family.

His words:” At 27 years, a co-tenant put this question to me: ‘We were told that you were born in this house and you are still in this house. Can’t you people even change the house? You should just change house so you won’t become a chief tenant in this compound.’

” I went to my dad and put the above question. And my dad said to me: ‘It is not as if I don’t have land, about three pieces of land I bought was taken over by Omoniles.’

“These experiences made me resolve to change the narrative which is our company’s dream of enabling all, especially the low-income earners own affordable properties, and enjoy the benefits from such investment without any form of interference.

“We also aim to make sure that the less privileged no matter the level of their income can become land owners. What many people don’t understand is that your first house does not necessarily mean your dream house. Everybody has a dream, but you can just get one first and start.” He affirmed.

“Iloshe means the will of God, and God gave it to me in a dream. We are six years, and hoping by our seventh anniversary, we will be more visible in the global space. Presently, we have 15 estates across the country. It is our goal that every year we must launch a new estate to enable people to access and buy properties.

” Our goal is to make 5000 to 10000 Nigerians become house owners. It is also the reason we are targeting our estate to have about 10000 acres of land. We are looking at providing 10000 housing units for low-income earners, middle and first class in five years.

” So looking back to the last six years at least about 500 people have benefited from our scheme. ” Fadeyi added.

The CEO, Iloshe Properties and Investment spoke on measures put in place to make owning a property seamless.

” Our selling point is that we majorly work on cooperatives by educating them on the need to own a house and how they should go about it.

“Our quest in handling the Omonile challenge is also a point for us. Many times, we overpay to avoid their interference; we sometimes involve the police where all parties sign to peace; and we don’t buy land from individuals. We always find the family community heads and chiefs. And getting the locale employed within our projects keeps them meaningfully engaged. These and more are the strategies we used to make our clients enjoy their investment.

Fadeyi noted that funding, aside from the Omonile issue, was a challenge to real estate in Nigeria. He, however, called on the government to release funds into the sector.

The real estate guru stated that about eight children have so far benefited from the land gifts from Iloshe Properties through her corporate social responsibility programmes.

Currently, the company has estates in the following locations: Wonderful City, Mokoloki; Zenith Gardens, Magboro; Crown Estate, Ikola; Wonderful City, Atan Ota; and Awesome Estate, Ikorodu.