70% of Nigeria’s real estate investment from diaspora – expert

There is fresh data that shows Nigerians in the diaspora are the biggest investors in the Nigerian real estate sector, experts have said.

Speaking at Day two of the maiden edition of BusinessDay’s property investment conference tagged PRINVEST 2022, experts say more Nigerians in the diaspora are investing in real estate not just for their occasional visits to Nigeria but also as retirement homes for their parents.

“Our recent survey shows that 70 percent of the investment in Nigeria’s real estate comes from Nigerians in the diaspora while 30 percent is accrued from Nigerians at home,” Ugoada Orji, Managing Director, Romax Properties Limited said at the event.

She noted that Nigerians abroad are pumping fresh capital to replicate the same infrastructure they enjoy in developed countries.

“The demographic for investments in Nigeria’s real estate sector is changing every sector,” Orji said.

For Modupe Anjous, the Chief Executive Officer at Rydal Mews, there is a growing discordance between the facilities provided by Nigerian banks and mortgage loans which makes it difficult for an average Nigerian employee to invest.

Read also: Mortgage opportunities abound in Nigeria’s real estate – Experts

“What we are currently seeing are investments from Nigerians abroad,” Anjous said.

Nigeria’s real estate sector of the economy has shown resilience, posting 2.26 percent growth in the last quarter of 2021 as captured in the GDP growth report recently released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure, which is 0.3 percent lower than what the sector recorded in the third quarter of the same year, has not only raised investors’ hope and deepened their confidence in the sector, but also brightened the sector’s outlook for 2022.

Though the performance of GDP, which grew by 3.98 percent in Q4 2021, does not capture the extent of real estate investments in any given year or quarter, it is worth noting that notwithstanding the low consumer purchasing power, investors were bullish, leading to the growth in the sector.