Performance of Real Property Investments in Nigeria: Analysis and Portfolio Consideration

Major organisations and institutional investors, in Nigeria, no doubt, are becoming increasingly interested in direct property investments. The market has witnessed an upsurge involvement of such organisations and investors, which has led to the listing of a property company in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. There is the need to examine the implications of this development on investors' portfolio. This paper therefore examines the performance of property investments vis‡- vis other investment media and establishes whether or not there is any gain, in terms of return/risk level, accruable to investors of a mixed assets portfolio when they invest in property assets. In achieving this aim, return data on different investment media, namely, Share, Treasury bill, Bank Saving Deposit, and Direct Property investment for the period of 1998-2002, were collected/calculated. The collected/calculated data were analysed with the use of mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of variation and correlation analysis. The paper's preliminary analysis revealed that real estate investments, in Nigeria, provided better performance, in terms of return and risk, when compared to other investment media. It also suggests that there is a lot to be gained when real estate investments are included in a mixed assets portfolio.