Eko Atlantic, a city reclaimed from the Ocean in Victoria Island is now probably the most expensive place to get on the property ladder in Nigeria. A square metre of land in Eko Atlantic is now more expensive than a plot of land (600 square metres) in most parts of Mowe, another fast developing city located in Ogun State geographically, but now a suburb of Lagos state.
Land in Eko Atlantic is now priced at US$1,720 per square metre, about N632, 753.6 based on an exchange rate of N367.88 to the US$ in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s investors and exporters window.
Average price of land in most parts of Mowe is N500, 000 and that is for 600 square metres. But then living in Mowe would not give you the privilege of enjoying Ocean breeze, which Eko Atlantic gives you and then the infrastructure Eko Atlantic promises is world class. Mowe promises no infrastructure.
But then getting a piece of Eko Atlantic is now more expensive than any other place in Lagos. A piece of space in Eko Atlantic is also 40 percent more expensive than a piece of landed space in Victoria Island where average price for landed property per square metre is US$1,244 or in Banana Island where it averages US$1,081 per square metre or in Lekki where the average price is US$681 per square metre. In Oniru, which is the other choice place on the Island a piece of space, per square metre goes for US$579.
Eko Atlantic is meant to help drive economic growth in Lagos. The city is meant to bring 250,000 new jobs and address a housing shortage brought on by a surging population. It is privately funded city, perhaps the first of its kind in the country. It is being sold to investors as a valuable foothold in Africa, which is one of the world’s emerging growth markets.
What makes Eko Atlantic’s unique is its location. The city borders Lagos directly and it is rising from the ashes of Lagos Bar Beach through the dredging and filling in of 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) worth of land. Before the project began in 2008, the peninsula was virtually non-existent, giving the city the appearance of being an island created out of thin air.