During the 7th-anniversary celebration of Conquerors Group International, real estate operators expressed concerns over the high cost of building materials in Nigeria. They highlighted that the exorbitant prices of imported building materials make it challenging to provide affordable housing for low-income Nigerians.
When asked about solutions for low-income Nigerians to own shelters, Dr Kingsley Akadidi, the CEO/Managing Director of Conquerors Group International, acknowledged the irregularity of government policies on housing in the country. However, he expressed optimism regarding the strategies and plans that his team and the new government have put in place to bring about positive changes in the real estate sector.
“While we are waiting for such changes, we cannot fold our hands and let things go down. However, if you check trends in this country, prices never go down whenever they rise because of the type of inflation we are experiencing here. So, what we can do or the best we can do for the masses is to educate the people first on how to increase their capital, and source of income considering that you may not live on one source of income and at the same time think of owning a house.
“So the campaign to educate the people is going wide. When people are educated on how to increase their source of income and manage it well, they can begin to plan to invest in landed property. We have also created an affordable grassroots land ownership scheme called Future Homes Association.”
Lending his voice, the Managing Director, Deal Clinchers Realtors Limited, Dr. Adeyemi Adeniyi while answering questions on the difficulties of Real Estate firms achieving affordable shelters for low-income earning Nigerian masses said that there is an Association where the Real Estate Developers belong called, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and our members will be using this platform to request for the supports of the government to consider production.
According to Dr. Adeniyi, there’s no way we will still be having materials for buildings imported and still be able to talk about affordability, it’s looking very impossible. “We need government intervention where we can have materials locally produced here and with that, we can use our local currency being earned from sales to buy the raw materials and use it to complete the buildings. But where we have to depend on bringing in all of these materials from different parts of Africa and different parts of Europe, it’s seemingly impossible because everything is tolerated”.
However, Adeniyi said that in the meantime, while we await the intervention of the new government, I will want to say that it’s still affordable, it’s still going to be affordable, it’s still going to be doable, but what would happen is for us to come together and synergize and see where we can possibly see some of the few materials that are not produced in commercial quantities to use for the completion of some of these projects. This means there is still hope to build low-cost housing when developers come together, just like you saw in this program hosted by Conqueror Group International celebrating her seven years, we can still come together like this, look for platforms where we can synergize, and see where we can get locally sourced or locally produced materials to crush prices of the cost of construction”.
In addition, the President and CEO, Perfection Real Estate Group, Dr. Niyi Adeleye answering the question where some humble Lagosians will buy landed property from a real estate company, only for the Omo Oniles to appear from nowhere and take over the land, Dr. Adeleye said that most real estate developers started as entrepreneurs, so sometimes there are knowledge gaps between what ought to be done and what is being done.
He said that land has its own lot of intricacies and if you don’t understand what to do part-time, you will run into trouble right so well. “I advise here that when buying a landed property, you have to relate with your host communities, you have to relate with the Omo Onile themselves, you have to relate with government, you have to relate with all manners of people.
So your ability to understand the interplay of all these stakeholders helps you to understand what to do part-time to secure”.
Furthermore, the MD/CEO, Sterling Homes Ltd, General Secretary REDAN South West Dr. Kunle Adeyemi advised that if Conquerors Group International must advance, like other business owners, there is time to review
Source: Vanguard
