As Nigeria’s economy struggles, crimping household income and shrinking consumer purchasing power, real estate developers are offering value propositions aimed to entice investors and stimulate demand.
One of such developers is Mixta Nigeria, a major player in the market where it is offering affordable housing across various income segments—low, middle, upper middle and upper class home buyers.
Mixta Nigeria is a member of Mixta Africa—a pan African property developer with subsidiaries in many African countries including Senegal, Cote D’voire, Tunisha, Morocco, etc. It is currently perfecting plans to open offices in two more African countries.
“Instead of buying land for N12 million elsewhere and, in the next five years, the land is still there undeveloped, you can buy a house from us and, if you don’t want to live there, we can rent it from you and even give you two-year rent upfront,” said Kola Ashiru-Balogun, Mixta Nigeria’s managing director.
He explained that , once the company gets a commitment from an investor who buys from their scheme, they would look out for a renter who would take up the property and there is always demand for such housing.
This arrangement has worked so well for the company that, this year alone, it has sold over 100 housing units. Ashiru-Balogun says that if it were some years back they came up with this product, they would have sold a lot more units. “What we have seen is a reflection of what the economy says. We see this product as one that can drive our business going forward,” he said.
He assured that apart from the returns on this investment, there are also other offerings that go with those houses. For instance, for a-N13 million house, the company packages National Housing Fund (NHF) for whoever buys. And the requirement is simple.
“You are required to put down 10 percent equity which is N1.3 million. The remaining N11.7 million will be in mortgage. Depending on the number of years, that means a monthly payment of N100,000. The rent that I will be giving to the buyer will be about N700,000.
“This means that at the end of each year, the investor has, at least, N500,000 in his pocket. This is not a bad investment and it is why reason I always tell people that the best time to invest in real estate is what there is equity built into it,” he said.
As it is always said, there is opportunity in real estate. Location is no longer a big issue because there is no perfect location. The managing encourages investors to buy now because, once the homes are delivered, the prices will go up.
The company has started designing houses which people can buy for the same prices they buy land. For instance, at their Beechwood Park Estate in Lekki, Lagos, their prices start from N13.5 million. This is the price of a 2-bedroom terrace house.
“We are also building 3-bedroom semi-detached house for N16 million. I can tell you that we are the only one selling that size of housing at that price within that location,” Ashiru-Balogun said.
According to him, when Mixta Nigeria designs products, it designs for every income group including chairmen of companies, managing directors, managers, sundry employees and income groups.
Therefore, the company has products at different prices to address the needs of these people. It has products from N6 million to over N100 million. But their N6 million product is usually land.
“We have sold a lot of land and it has been successful. In driving what we call our vision and what we really want to do, we don’t enjoy selling land to people and in 10 years the land is still fallow. We would rather sell land to people and they can move in there with their family in a short while,” he said.
CHUKA UROKO
