Land in Nigeria’s major cities is today treated and priced like gold. In Lagos, the country’s commercial nerve centre, for instance, land is said to be an equivalent of an oil well, which is why the managers of the state are up and out looking for those who flout their land administration laws, wrong or right.
In most cities of the country, including those regarded as second-tier cities, such as Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, Onitsha, among others, land commands enormous values.
Due largely to strong demand coming from real estate developers, industry operators, diaspora investors, and sundry buyers who want to hedge their wealth against inflation, land prices have surged to very significant levels.
In some locations particularly in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, land prices have tripled over the last 12 months, posting close to 300 percent value appreciation.
Chudi Ubosi, principal partner at Ubosi Eleh & Co, a firm of estate surveyors and valuers, confirmed to BusinessDay that land prices have moved beyond comprehension, citing a property on Cooper Road in Ikoyi which, according to him, was going for N800,000 per square metre (sqm) in January 2024, but today is priced at N3.5 million per sqm.
“These price increases are a function of inflation and devaluation of the Naira. As a matter of convention, property values move with inflation even though it is said that real estate is a hedge against inflation. The price increases are the same all over Lagos,” he stated.
In the mainland Lagos, Ikeja GRA, for instance, prices have also moved, and according to Ubosi, land in the GRA now sells for N1.5 million/sqm, up from N600,000/sqm in January 2024.
However, as outrageous as these prices are, they are not the real cost of land in Nigerian cities today. The real costs, rather, are the family dislocation, psychological trauma, and investment losses that many residents are enduring as a result of building demolitions by federal and state governments across cities.
The rash of building demolitions that has recently affected at least 2,500 houses in major cities across the country is fuelling lamentations and apprehension among residents and investors who no longer sleep with their two eyes closed because the bulldozers can come any time, day or night.
Building demolition, unfortunately, has become a trend and routine not only in Lagos and Abuja, but also in Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Oyo, and Kano, leaving in its trail property devaluation, job losses, homelessness, and declining investors’ confidence in the real estate market.
By the last checks, which were even before the demolition of the Makoko community and the upscale Lekki Palm City Estate, Ajah, it was estimated that 2,500 houses in major cities across the country have been affected, with the cost put at over N2 trillion.
In Lagos, where the destruction has been most pronounced, demolition has affected communities along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, Ikorodu, Ikota, Ebute-Metta, Bariga, Ibeju-Lekki, the Lagos Trade Fair Complex, Festac Town, Oworonshoki and Mile 12.
The Mile 12 incident was quite devastating as it was reported that 10 people died of shock, while almost 300 houses, including community schools, hospitals, churches, and mosques, were pulled down.
In both Lagos and Abuja, the demolition is not only pervasive, it is also mindless and is done as though the government has a score to settle with the residents.
In some locations where demolitions take place, land is sold for a lot of money, which is why some social commentators have reservations about what the government’s intentions are beyond the often-touted urban renewal. Land is at the core of the mindless drive.
A full plot of land in many of the affected areas in Lagos now sells for around N200 million, while half-plots fetch over N80 million. The cumulative value of lost property in Lagos alone is estimated at over N2 trillion.
Read also: Cautious optimism trails 2026 projections for real estate sector
Though Akinwunmi Balogun, a university don, reasons that slums are always a menace to planning and modernity, Adebanjo Emmanuel, a retired director from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), counters, saying that urban renewals should be well-purposed, programmed and planned over time with possible financing assistance for people to be affected.
“Suddenly, the government realises that some infringements of their “unknown” master plans have been committed. And pronto, the midnight roaring of the bulldozers. Methinks two wrongs do not make a right,” he noted.
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