Luxury real estate: Not yet buyer’s market despite large unsold inventory

Contrary to expectations, luxury real estate in Nigeria is not yet a buyer’s market despite the large unsold inventory in the country’s major cities of Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, often described as the epicentre of luxury properties, remains the top city for luxury real estate. Its highbrow neighborhoods like Ikoyi, Victoria Island, and Lekki Phase 1 are synonymous with luxury living.

These neighbourhoods offer waterfront homes, penthouses, and lavish mansions with breathtaking views of either the Atlantic Ocean or the Lagos Lagoon.

A walk through the high streets of Ikoyi, for instance, shows many empty houses that either cannot find buyers or renters, or are not looking for any as is the case with a good number of them in places like Maitama and Garki in Abuja, Nigeria’s administrative capital.

An Estate Intel report shows that there are over 700 upcoming ultra-luxury units in the Lagos market, with Ikoyi as a key investment destination, adding that there is a pipeline of 1,436 units within this market. Almost every turn in Ikoyi shows cranes rising and falling or piling machines roaring endlessly.

A market data from Nigeria Property Centre shows that Lagos alone had about 47,000 houses listed for sale in September 2025, one of the highest in recent years. This reflects a buildup of unsold inventory as economic conditions weigh on both developers and potential homeowners.

Despite this obvious imbalance that shows supply outstripping demand in that segment of the market, prices are yet to drop to tilt the market in favour of the buyer. Prices still remain sticky as sellers remain unyielding to market forces.

“Who are the buyers of the Ikoyi and Banana Island mansions?” is a question frequently asked by observers who find it hard to come to terms with many unoccupied buildings and several others that are coming up within the same locations, meaning that the developers are not discouraged by market realities.

Explaining why it is not yet buyer’s market, Udo Okonjo, CEO, Fine and Country West Africa, says, “we need to recognise that luxury is not for everyone and, yes, we have a lot of vacant properties but the question is, what type of properties? If you check, they are not good quality properties and are not built to the demand and expectations of the market.”

Continuing, Okonjo says, “one of the things we see is that investors who worry about their naira being stuck as a result of not being able to convert the naira to dollars but consider real estate as a safe place to invest, adding that in this market, flexibility is the name of the game, but many developers and landlords are inflexible.

BusinessDay had, in an earlier report, noted that the Nigerian real estate sector is a significant avenue for corruption and illicit financial flows, primarily used for money laundering and hiding unexplained wealth. This partly explains why some of the empty mansions are not looking for buyers or renters, choosing to remain like that for years.

Though there are signs, as seen in the narrowing gap between seller dominance and buyer opportunity, close market watchers, in their divergent views, insist the country has not yet entered a full-blown buyer’s market.

While some agree that the segment is gradually tilting towards a buyer’s market, others remain cautious, describing the trend as a mild correction rather than a full transition.

Analysts describe the present landscape as a market that is cooling, not collapsing, correcting but not crashing. Whether this adjustment evolves into a genuine buyer’s market remains uncertain. However, for the first time in years, buyers now appear to have more room to negotiate prices.

According to them, even though the market is not yet there, early signs of a transition are becoming evident, saying, “while the market has traditionally favoured sellers due to the massive housing deficit and persistent price growth, we are beginning to see buyer hesitation, price resistance, and slower deal closures, especially outside prime locations.”