Trends In Nigerian Real Estate Market – 2017

With the President away on medical leave, the technocrat Vice-President twice took the reins and has made decisive actions leading to a rebound of the Naira, facilitating ease of doing business for foreigners and locals alike and calming nerves in the Niger Delta, which led to the much-needed increase in the nations crude oil output, amongst others. It wasn’t long before the World Bank predicted an exit from recession in 2017 and economic growth of 1%, later reviewed to 1.2% by mid-year.But it was not all rosy in the first half of the year as there’s more than one boiling pot of social instability in different pockets of the country. Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, and now a Biafra and Arewa faceoff have further made more than 50% of the country’s land area undesirable for commercial real estate activities or significant investments.Resultant to these, built property prices either stayed constant or declined in most locations, only rising in select areas where quality and location induced growth. Land prices on the other hand continued to rise in most regions, seemingly being the best form of real estate investment considering the high cost of developing property in a country where over 50% of construction materials are imported even in the face of a weakened local currency,The zealous implementation of the whistleblowing act also had far reaching consequences on the real estate sector and sadly they are not positive. Two corporate real estate players sought public funding/investment for their real estate developments. Mixta Nigeria recorded success while the other was not so successful. The Government equally demonstrated some commitment towards financing housing delivery and accessed a World Bank loan of $300M for that purpose.