In a move to boost innovations in the country’s real estate sector, Regent – a Nigerian real estate development company held a conference on opportunities in the industry.
The event had Ogaba Sanni, the company’s CEO, real estate professionals, renowned economists, investors, and real estate representatives from different locations in the country in attendance to shed light on the various opportunities that retail investors can leverage in the residential real estate space. Also, the firm hosted a cocktail for real estate investors.
In Ogaba’s fireside chat with Bolusope Ogboye, an energy consultant, he said that the current challenges confronting the real estate sector of the nation’s economy informed the decision by the firm to embark on this event as a forum to foster business relations, and further expand partnerships in creating stronger real estate products.
He said, “The real estate sector has shown great resilience despite challenges in the economy over the last few years, however, there has been an insufficient amount of data being offered to retail investors and owner occupiers when making purchasing decisions.”
“Our goal of having this event as a company was to bridge that gap and also provide practical examples of how we have helped our clients make better buying decisions.”
“Developers have in the past limited innovation to architectural styles and spatial functions. Industry players will agree with me that the real estate sector can no longer be just business as usual. In a reshaped real estate market, new approaches will be essential to success.
“Besides building the end product, real estate developers must now also conduct other processes that impact their overall business performance. In the past, this has been ignored as there have always been willing buyers at any price point.”
“Process innovations cover understanding the expectations of buyers, defining their problems, and solving them,” Ogaba explained.
According to him, Regent is using the data and research it conducts internally to ensure it is delivering value in terms of what it builds and not just following other developers’ trends.
“We have demonstrated this with our flagship product Premier Court, a multi-family development in Lekki Phase 1, the best performing neighbourhood for residential real estate assets and also has attractive price growth.
“The project consists of 3-bedroom apartments, maid rooms, independent alternative power sources asides from diesel generators, and much more. This project sold out less than 6 months after launching and we already have a long waiting list for Phase 2 of this project.”
Read also: Sustainability, green building critical to next phase of Africa’s real estate – Experts
To give a balanced and objective view to participants, Michael Famoroti, Head of Intelligence at Stears took an interactive and educative session on the state of the Nigerian economy and Global economy and what investors can do to thrive during inflation.
He said, “In terms of the global and local economy, there are not many great things going on right now. Generally, when interest rates are going up, it actually has quite a big effect on the investment landscape primarily because interest rates essentially determine the return on risk-free assets.
“When you look at the investment market I think a lot of things are cheaper than it was 6 to 9 months ago. With real estate, one of the benefits is that it doesn’t follow the normal cycle. Sometimes you see house prices and rent going up when things are going down. But the key thing is recognizing that as we stay in this high-interest rate environment, there is reallocation from risky to safer assets.
“The second thing is yes, it’s a downtime, yes we are going to have high inflation from now to the next 12 months this is also the time to be identifying those winners that you see providing long-term value and then try to identify if this is a good time to buy based on their pricing.”
During the question and answer session, the speakers showed the most concern around areas such as investors being individuals who will key into current developments or future projects and investors strictly looking at owning real estate as an asset class.
Regent Real Estate’s balanced and data-driven approach has enabled the company to advise and also deliver real estate projects in various jurisdictions. This value proposition ensures its clients and stakeholders are well served in the short and long term.
