An Examination of Corporate Real Estate Holdings in Lagos Nigeria

The importance of real estate to business organisations in advanced countries are found in the discovery that its cost is second to salary as well as the fact that organisations invest up to 25% of their total assets in real estate. With increasing interest of foreign investors in African market coupled with the globalisation of business and private, efficient allocation of organisational resources is essential for productivity and profitability.The study evaluates the real estate holdings of business organisations vis a vis their total assets as a strategy for enhancing productivity and achieve a competitive edge. Business organisations were categorised into financial institutions, manufacturing, utility/ construction, fund administrators and oil and gas industry. Five companies were selected from each of the categories of business organisations and data elicited from their annual report were analysed using time series analysis for a period of 2011 to 2015.The analysis of the secondary data showed diverse result in the real estate investment profile of Nigerian organisations. While those organisations in the oil and gas can be said to have a balanced real estate to total asset holding proportion that gives them a better competitive edge, organisations in other sectors have lesser real estate holdings that are not significant enough to assist for an enhanced result.