Economic Growth And Development Through Real Estate Market Research

Real estate markets are not centrally organized but are organized by existing market outlets where interests, rights, etcetera, in real estates are sold, bought or leased. Major players within the markets are investors, lessees, financiers, buyers and sellers. The markets may be local, national or international, specializing in different types of property. The market possesses special characteristics which make its operations uniquely different from the conventional commodity markets. Success in any investment venture require prior research into the intended business arena to discover the strength of demand, number of suppliers, the goods or services needed and their quality, the market segments and the supply gaps. Most real estate investors, globally, fail to undertake market research to discover the market segments they intend to serve before venturing into them. They employ human intuition for investment decisions. Often these result in entering saturated markets thereby loosing huge investment funds and truncating overall economic development in the process. Prudent economic principles for investment are to discover unexplored or underexplored markets and to design appropriate products and services for economically empowered consumers for good economic returns. This paper examines appropriate real estate market researches that need to be undertaken prior to investment decisions and execution thereof. Survey approach was used to find out how the property investors approach the market research before embarking on developmental investments and the investment outcomes. The place of study encompasses major cities in Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Abia states of Nigeria.