Professionals seek new policy, financing model to reposition real estate

Professionals in the Nigeria real estate sector are seeking new policy, financing model, development initiatives, environmental and social governance, sustainability and ethics to reposition the sector.

The professionals, who are worried about the many problems facing the sector, argue that if good policies and programmes are initiated and implemented, they would put the industry on the path of growth and performance.

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They spoke at the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), Nigeria Chapter’s 50th anniversary with the theme, ‘Repositioning Real Estate Industry for the future: Ethics, Affordability and Sustainability’ in Lagos recently.

“Government needs to come up with new initiatives that will benefit the operatives and development of the industry now and in the future. The major challenge faced in the past years was creating awareness about the need for international networking to grow the industry,” Opara said.

“Government needs to come up with new initiatives that will benefit the operatives and development of the industry now and in the future. The major challenge faced in the past years is creating awareness about the need for international networking to grow the industry,” Gladstone Opara, President of FIABCI-Nigeria, said.

Opara noted that the way things were in the sector at the moment, it would seem that the operators were doing the same thing every day without progress, adding that the future generation might not find anything good to latch onto.

For that reason, he said, “the government needs to come up with new initiatives that will benefit the operators and development of the industry now and in the future. The major challenge faced in the past years was creating awareness about the need for international networking to grow the industry.”

Tunde Lemo, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who was chairman of the event, noted that the housing sector was important to Nigerians, considering the country’s growing population which is expected to reach 400 million by 2050.

Underscoring the opportunity this presents to investors and challenge to the country, Lemo said it had become crucial to start thinking about how to provide affordable housing for all citizens, including those that will be born in the next 25–30 years.

“Where we are now, economists tell us that we have a severe housing shortage of between 21 and 22 million units, requiring about 21 trillion to fix. For an individual to be able to afford a house today, with the cheapest houses ranging between N8 and N10million, it will be difficult,” he said.

In his goodwill message, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, reasoned that housing development could only be impactful when there were sufficient institutional arrangements in place for continuity.

The governor who was represented at the event by the Commissioner for Housing, Moruf Akinderu – Fatai, disclosed that housing development was central to the policy of the state government, adding that decent housing forms a passion and one of the six-point agenda of the state government.

He commended the association for standing tall in the real estate industry and justifying the wisdom of its founders in the last 50 years, by setting the benchmark for excellence in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

FIABCI President for the Africa and Near East Region, Adeniji Adele, charged new inductees and members to show more commitment to upholding ethics, loyalty, and leadership as well as spend time to uplift the association.

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Adele, who was the immediate past president of the Chapter, emphasised that the association had increased its numerical strength and would continue the business of networking and collaboration to grow the real estate industry.

President-elect, FIABCI International, Ramon Riera Torroba, noted that FIABCI Nigeria was a formidable association in its international community with an array of professionals that make up the chapter. He pledged to work with the chapter to deepen professionalism among existing and new members.

Torroba enjoined them to work with passion and integrity which, he noted, were the hallmarks of the network in discharging its mandates.