By Akanimo Sampson
A real estate development company in Nigeria, Octo5 Holdings Ltd is currently trying to scale-up transactions in Abuja and Lagos markets with its technological system known as STOW.
Octo5 Holdings Ltd is the holding company of Octo5 Estates Ltd, formerly known as Legacy Realties Ltd, one of Nigeria’s pioneer developers of gated communities especially on the Lekki peninsula in Lagos.
As part of the company restructuring initiatives, it has formed a strong partnership with public sector players such as the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC) along with one of the leading mortgage banks in Nigeria – Abbey Mortgage Bank.
This is to enable it offer flexibility and deepen the affordability pool for home ownership investments. In addition, it has nurtured a strong team of industry specialists to ensure the successful delivery of its various communities.
Octo5’s twin-fold objective is to enable the creation of master planned urban communities and resolve the core issues impeding demand and supply of homes across Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
However, its CEO, Babajide Odusolu, explains in an interview that STOW is a demand aggregator. ‘’What STOW is basically doing is creating a platform that makes it easy for anyone who wants to buy off plan homes to go on Google Playstore and Appstore and download the app’’, he says.
While throwing more light on STOW, Odusolu said he is a passionate believer in the Abuja International Housing Show (AIHS), Africa’s biggest housing and construction event.
‘’We are using ourselves as a guinea pig to test efficacy of STOW. We have got projects we have launched, in Lagos. We have three sites at Oworonshoki, Epe,and in Lekki that we are using to pile up STOW.
‘’In Abuja we are also introducing two projects which we are finalising and will be unveiling very soon hopefully this year and we will be using those five projects to launch STOW, and the goal is that we are going to have the names of 10,000 clients soon on the STOW platform.
‘’The first batch will be buying our own properties but we know that we do not have the capacity to supply all the demand so we expect that as STOW begins to grow in popularity other developers who have been qualified and are members of REDAN, meaning they are credible and will also be on the STOW platform.
‘’A developer does not have to worry about where the market is coming from and the person buying houses doesn’t have to be worrying about where the developer is, because the app itself already shows you an answer to the question. So that is what we are doing and that is what Octo Five is all about, creating solutions that make the industry grow.’’
On Africa’s largest housing and construction event coming up on July 26 through 29, Jide says: ‘’I am a passionate believer in the AIHS. We have been partners with them for quite a while now because it is the single largest most organised, and visible platform for Nigeria’s real estate. So, you see a lot of capital wanting to come to Nigeria but Nigeria is like a jungle.
‘’The rules are so wide, the players are so disorganised that it is difficult to understand where we are even heading too. What AIHS has done is to create a platform where if you are a developer and if you are a serious person in the industry you are there.
‘’When investors want to come to Nigeria they have a single corridor they can come through and that’s why we support AIHS so much. The team behind it led by Festus Adebayo has done a fantastic job and we are looking for the time when AIHS will soon be compared to MIPIM.
‘’That’s the one that use to take place in Cannes, where every major investor goes to say I want to invest in Nigeria real estate, let me go to AIHS let me see what is new this year, let me see who is coming up, and through that will create a platform that places Nigeria in its rightful place as a leading economy.’’
