Stakeholders see future in real estate market, decry high cost of housing

 Beyond the current 17 million housing deficit in the country, operators in the real estate sector of the nation’s economy have said there is hope for affordable housing in the nearest future.

They, however, expressed sadness over rising cost of housing, especially the government-built houses.

The view was expressed in Lagos on Thursday at ‘Real Estate Market Review and Projections 2013’ by Roland Igbinoba, president/CEO, Pison Housing Company; David Kpue, Ag. general manager, Federal Housing Authority (FHA); Femi Johnson, president, Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria (MBAN); Kayode Omotoso, executive secretary/CEO, MBAN; Tony

Monye, chief economist, Access Bank Plc; and Kojo Addo-Kufuor, COO, Ghana Home Loans, Ghana.

Giving an overview of the real estate market, Igbinoba said the sector faced a lot of challenges last year which ranged from infrastructure, funding, capacity building to high interest rate.

According to him, “Although funding is critical, there are a whole lot of other factors. If you bring in multi-million naira into the real estate market, it does not mean the problem of the sector will be over. But I think capacity building is a major challenge.”

He commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for ensuring the stability of the exchange rate, adding that political stability in the country has, to a large extent, impacted positively on the

real estate market.

Igbinoba noted that there are good opportunities in the sector despite the seeming tough times.

“The market is tough, no doubt, but developers must be able to take the risk to invest in any category of the real estate they wish to involve in. The outlook for the market is good for 2013. The Nigerian environment does not know how to support your business, but it knows how to handsomely reward you,” he said.

In his presentation, Tony Monye, who spoke on ‘Global Economy and Real Estate Market/Macroeconomic Analysis of Real Estate Investment in Nigeria’, compared the local market with what goes on in the United States, China and Europe.

According to Monye, those nations were yet to fully re

CHUKA UROKO