Nigeria, as a country, has a housing challenge that borders on insufficient stock, low ownership level and lack of demand enabler in terms of mortgage or low-rate housing finance.
Individual efforts at increasing the stock by way of developing more houses, coupled with talk shows offering insights into possible solutions, have not helped to reduce the demand-supply gap or increase the ownership level estimated at 17 million units and a little above 10 percent respectively.
But the situation is not helpless. Kennedy Okonkwo, CEO and founder of Nedcomoaks, a Lagos based real estate company, says industry collaboration is critical, especially for solving the current 17 million housing deficit in the country.
“The housing problem in Nigeria cannot be solved by my company or any single individual; not even government; it requires collaboration. Population is on the increase and as population increases so also the need for housing will increase,” Okonkwo said.
“As more people move into Lagos in search of better livelihood, the opportunities for the housing sector also increases,” noted Okonkwo who spoke at a recent press conference to unveil the maiden edition of the Victoria Crest Home (VCH) property festival, held in Lagos.
According to him, the bottom of the pyramid is fatter and not everybody will want to live in a place like Ikoyi. “I advise developers, particularly those that I mentor, that there is a need to do research on the segment of the housing market to play in; the middle class have a great deal of opportunities, they are strong and growing; so anybody building for the middle class will never go wrong,” he stated.
Victoria Crest Home, which is the leading brand in the Nedcomoaks group recently delivered Victoria Crest Estate 1, 2 and 3 and have also diversified the brand with Victoria Bay 1-3; Victoria Nest and the Alexandria Terrace.
“At Victoria Crest Home, our aim is to make ‘aspirational living’ affordable; that is making comfort affordable in our estates with the provision of uninterrupted power supply; treated water supply; and recreational facilities that include playground, swimming pull, gym and others,” he said.
Speaking further on the VCH property festival, Okonkwo said the newly completed Victoria Bay Estate with 226 housing units will be launched. “We also used the occasion to launch the joint-ownership property platform with the aim of attracting Nigerians in Diaspora who desire to own a property; to buy into the scheme by owning about 20 to 30 percent of the property and can start generating income from the property,” he stated.
Okonkwo disclosed that the goal of Nedcomoaks as a player in the real estate space was to ensure that everybody who desired to own a piece of Lagos could actually own it with $10, 000 or N4 million depending on the kind of payment he wanted to key into in the scheme.
The three-day property festival started with the partner day celebration followed by subscription to the scheme by about 8000 potential home owners and a raffle draw and flash sales that allowed subscribers to make commitment by depositing a minimum of N1 million into any of its newest estate, while the balance is spread over 24 months.
SEYI JOHN SALAU
