Expert explains why land is not Nigeria’s real estate problem

Land, along with finance and labour, is a major factor of production that drives industrialization, agriculture, real estate, and ultimately economic growth.

In real estate, land is as important as the sector itself. Without land, no activity will take place, no matter the quantum of finance available to the investor, or the level of expertise labour possesses. Everything happens on land.

Lack of access to it is, therefore, a major problem for an investor or individual builder, and for the sector itself. But an expert, a legal icon, reasons differently. He notes that Nigeria possesses enormous quantities of valuable urban land, citing empty parcels in places like Ikoyi. Victoria Island, Lekki. Apapa, Port Harcourt, and Abuja.

The expert, Kevin Ebhojie, Managing Partner, Brickhouse Solicitors, further notes that these parcels of land have remained undeveloped for years—sometimes decades-and asks, “If the land already exists, why hasn’t it become productive?”

Continuing, he said, “the answer is rarely ownership. It is almost always transaction failure. Families cannot agree. Developers cannot finance acquisitions. Banks remain uncomfortable with documentation. Titles require perfection. Governance structures are weak, and risk allocation is poor.”

According to him, land remains idle not because it lacks value, but because the legal and commercial architecture required to unlock that value has not been properly assembled. “That is why I say we do not have a land problem. We have a structuring problem,” he explained.

Ebhojie, who spoke in an interview with BusinessDay, placed lawyers at the centre of solving that problem, recalling that, traditionally, lawyers have been viewed as the people who arrive after the commercial deal has already been agreed.

They draft the contract, review the title, prepare completion documents and collect professional fees. That model is disappearing.

“Today’s commercial lawyer must understand finance, corporate governance, project management, risk allocation, tax, insurance, institutional lending, construction sequencing, regulatory approvals, stakeholder management,” he stated.

He pointed out that, increasingly, clients are asking a different question not bordering on “can you draft this agreement?” But rather on, “can you make this transaction work?” There is an enormous difference. The latter requires commercial judgment.

He disclosed that his practice has evolved in that direction, adding that some of the most satisfying mandates he has undertaken involved remarkably little courtroom work. Instead, they required assembling multiple moving parts into one coherent commercial structure.

“You might have a land-owning family with a premium asset but no appetite to sell, a developer with exceptional technical capability but limited liquidity, a financier requiring documentary certainty, and consultants requiring coordinated instructions.

You might also have purchasers demanding confidence, trustees safeguarding title, and government approvals running simultaneously. Each participant has entirely different concerns. The lawyer increasingly becomes the transaction architect,” he explained.

He explained further that the lawyer becomes transaction architect not because he controls the transaction, but because he understands how each component interacts with the others. That, in my opinion, represents the future of commercial legal practice.