Nigeria’s Real Estate industry still in recession – experts

ABUJA - Property developers as well as estate surveyors and valuers have said the real estate industry is still in recession despite the rebound in the economy.

Some of them, who spoke with our correspondent, said many houses were still vacant and there was still high rate of default on rent payment by tenants.

According to experts in the industry, the real estate market is often the worst hit in times of recession and also takes a longer time to pick up unlike other sectors.

The National General Secretary, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Akintoye Adeoye, said investors, especially those in the residential sub-sector, had yet to feel the impact of a rebound in the economy.

He noted that despite several innovative options that had been made available to buyers, developers were still unable to sell off or lease properties.

Adeoye stated, “As developers, we haven’t felt any change in the economy. It is still the same as it was about one year ago when the recession was biting hard. Many houses are still vacant despite the fact that developers are becoming very innovative with offers to investors.

“We have come up with offers some of which allow subscribers to pay between 20 and 30 per cent deposit, move into the houses and spread the balance over four to six-year period.

But despite this very generous offer, many subscribers are not forthcoming, because they are unable to come up with the deposits even on houses as cheap as N9m. So, in the real estate industry, we are still in a recession.”

According to Adeoye, the rental market is also not faring better as many landlords and tenants are in court over default on rent obligations.

“It has been a tenant’s market for some time now, but even that has not helped. As a lawyer, I can tell you that rent-related court cases are on the increase; tenants are defaulting and taking their landlords to court and vice versa,” he said.

He added that the top end and luxury markets in Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi in Lagos, and some parts of Abuja, were the most affected.