Many Nigerians have chosen to relocate (japa) to foreign lands as an escape from the excruciating hardship and biting economic conditions in the country that have denied many families access to basic needs of life.
To underscore the seriousness with which they mean to japa, almost all those who have left the country sold one property or another, mostly landed property, to raise money to fund their relocation, which, for many, is for good.
Some families sell land to prepare one of their own for this journey of no return. This is said to be common among families in many towns and villages in a certain part of Nigeria.
Reports have it that Nigerians abroad, be it Canada, America, Europe or anywhere else in the world, are working so hard, doing multiple jobs to buy land back home. These are people who may have sold family land to travel abroad.
On the other hand, back home, Nigerians are selling land to relocate abroad so that they too can do three to four jobs to buy land again in Nigeria, leading to an unending cycle where land is the focal point.
This offers interesting insights into why the land market, especially in the urban areas, is very active. Remittances from Nigerians in Diaspora has become a sizeable proportion of the country’s economic growth index.
Recently, many estate developers have focused on Nigerians in Diaspora as their target market and the demolition of WinHomes Estate in Okun Ajah area of Lagos where Diaspora Nigerians are said to have invested $250 million is a testament to that.
That was a site and serviced estate that was demolished by the federal government to create right of way for the construction of the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal highway which starts in Victoria Island, Lagos and terminates in Calabar, Cross River State.
Read also: In push to enhance revenue FMBN registers 178,619 employees for NHF
Experts are of the view that, land price, more than any other aspect of real estate, is always on the rise, explaining that diaspora demand coupled with rising inflation has pushed the price of this asset to outrageous levels.
Until the last economic magic that dragged it down to 24.48 percent in January 2025, headline inflation had peaked at 34.80 percent in December 2024, pushing commodity and asset prices to a point where many families could not afford them.
The experts note, however, that the land price rise is mostly in prime locations, especially in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre. This means that the story is not entirely the same in other market nodes, particularly markets for low-income buyers.
In Banana Island, the most exclusive highbrow location in Nigeria which is home to the country’s crème- de-la-creme, land price, within six months, rose from N1.4 million per square metre to between N2 million and N2.2 million per square metre.
In Old Ikoyi, which is another highbrow location in Lagos, land price moved from between N800,000 and N900,000 per square metre to between N1.3 million and N1.4 million per square metre within the same period.
As for Victoria Island which, unlike Banana Island and Ikoyi, is more of commercial than residential market node, land value climbed to N1.2 million per square metre from N900,000 per square metre.
Emeka Eleh, a Principal Partner at Ubosi Eleh + Co, confirmed this price movement, attributing it to high inflationary trend in the economy which made real estate, especially land, the preferred destination for people who want to hedge their funds against vagaries in the economy.
“Investing in land is always a good decision and when there is a downturn in economy such as we have now with high inflationary trend, land is the way to go to hedge your fund against inflation,” Eleh said, adding, “unless land becomes degraded, it hardly depreciates.”
He noted that other market nodes such as Lekki, which is said to be the fastest growing real estate corridor in Nigeria, Ikeja GRA, Ogudu GRA and Oniru also record significant price increases.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
