The slowdown in the Nigerian economy coupled with challenges that have kept the real estate market in recession and negative growth territory since the last quarter of 2016 were not enough reasons to hold back promoters of the iconic Kingsway Towers from launching into the struggling prime office market.
The property market in Nigeria has, in the last five years, seen prime office space supply surge and a sharp drop in demand, reflecting the state of the country’s economy. The Grade A office space market has also experienced a decline in both asking and achievable rents from $1,000 per square metre to between $700 and $850 per square metre, depending on location and other value propositions.
Knight Frank, an international real estate firm, in its Q1 2019 Lagos Property Monitor, notes that vacancy rates for Grade A offices have remained high, because the market is yet to recover sufficiently enough to support effective demand for rentals per square metre which is quite high.
Amidst these odds which also include stiff competition for the few tenants available, Kingsway Towers, in the first quarter of 2019, made its way into the market, standing tall on 15 floors and contributing 13,317 square metres space to an already oversupplied market place.
The office complex which stands strategically on the intersection of Kingsway and Glover Roads in Ikoyi Lagos, has come into the market to compete with the likes of British American Tobacco’s Rising Sun, Lake Point Towers, Heritage Place, Temple Tower, Alliance Place, and Wings Towers.
The building, already catching interests from mid and large corporate occupiers, is designed as an oval tower on a rectangular podium. It has a north and south orientation to lessen the solar load and is effectively shaded with feature screen and planters to limit the amount of direct sun on it.
The mixed-use theme of the structure is aimed to keep up with trends seen in many new commercial developments in Lagos both existing and those expected in the coming years.
Designed by Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects (SAOTA), Kingsway Towers aims to give occupiers a one-of-a-kind experience with state-of-the-art facilities and, according to the South Africa-based designers, who have footprints in six continents, “the building’s façade is covered by a screen to add both aesthetic value and shading, thereby lessening the amount of direct sunlight.”
Business Day’s visit to the office building at the weekend revealed that finishing activities were still on-going in some inner parts, and there were available spaces for leasing.
Fawzy El-Hoayek, Business Development Executive at Skyview Tower Limited, explained that spaces between the third and fourteenth floors were available for rent, and that current occupiers range from mid-sized organizations to multinationals that desire to have presence in Nigeria’s economic hub.
“The minimum leasing space is 300 square metres, and spaces are only allowed to be divided from third to sixthfloors , while seventh to fourteenth floors cannot be divided”, El-Hoayek informed.
El-Hoayek explained that available spaces between the third and sixth floors were partitioned, while the spaces starting from the seventh floor could not be shared as tenants will have to rent them as a whole.
He explained further that the cost of renting largely depended on the kind of space tenants wanted. He did not reveal the rent, saying however that, “it is a market price, and our price is negotiable.”
The serenity of the work environment, as well as high-level security and exclusivity of facilities make Kingsway Towers one of the special havens for corporates seeking prime office space in Lagos.
ISRAEL ODUBOLA
