Real estate developers, and property agents have expressed worries over the slow pace of business in the housing industry.They said that the sector has witnessed low patronage since the inception of the present administration.
An Abuja-based estate surveyors and valuers, Eric Okafor, said the situation is better experienced than imagined, as property investments were on decline, and many void properties existed.
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He stated that this month’s elections would not help matters because investors are apprehensive of the aftermath of the elections.
“After the polls, we hope more people will relocate to Abuja city. And more confidence would have been built, and there will be investment again because the political atmosphere will be certain by then.”
Similarly, Mopelola Kola-Lawal, said real estate industry was a major contributor to the economic in 2018, as Lagos continues to be the most active state of the federation. She said the reasons are not far fetched, with the world urbanization study prospects that Lagos would be the 9th largest city in the world by 2030,this continues to heap the gain of real estate in the state.
“The country still requires 17 to 20 million housing units to address the housing deficit, with the yearly demand of N1million houses compared with annual supply of only 100,000 units. This year a lot of developers are still interested in the building industry, the reduced pace in some quarters is expected to pick up when elections are settled. With elections in view, the general atmosphere of anxiety has caused some developers to slow down on constructions basically due to fear of the unknown ”.
Dr. Akin Olowookere, said the economic hardship impacted negatively on real estate last year as well as other businesses.
“When customers and clients approached us to buy properties on installment basis, even with different methods of payment you give, hardly will they accept the offers. So, a lot of properties are now lying fallow, while interest rate keeps growing. Investors are already feeling it. As far as 2018 was concerned, patronage was not as we expected in the sector”.
On his part, Coleman Obong, said economic hardship has slowed down activities in the industry, and there was lack of finance for people to develop building projects.
“Property sales in Garden City has been very low, many housing units are being offered for sale, but there are no buyers at the moment, perhaps because of the coming polls.
