Nigerian Real Estate
Mr Akin Olawore, the Principal Partner at Akin Olawore & Co., on Friday said the Nigerian real estate industry was grossly underdeveloped due to financial constraints and land limitation.
Olawore, a former President of the Lagos Chapter of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, made the observation in an interview in Lagos.
“With all the resources available in the country, we should not be having housing deficit.
“The only thing that has been lacking and which government should take seriously is finance,” he said.
“Government said it is unable to facilitate large expanse of land for mass housing development because of land use decree; making land available is not the only challenge,” he said.
Olawore said that developers were saddled with the burden of getting funds for their projects.
“If they go to the bank, the banks will say bring collateral so that the banks can be sure they will get their money back, ” he said.
Olawore said government should look into other avenues of funding the real estate sector to reduce the bottlenecks in land acquisition and ease the burden of investors in the industry.
“Pension funds and monies in dormant accounts are avenues that the government can exploit to fund the real estate industry,” he said.
Olawore said there was another N40 billion in the capital market as unclaimed dividend, wondering why the funds were lying idle.
He said that commercial and mortgage banks could operate well if funds were made available.
