Real Estate: Mixta urges firms to be creative, inward-looking
The fact that most real estate developers are avoiding affordable housing and property market segment due to its peculiar challenges, has prompted a real estate firm, Mixta Nigeria, to urge stakeholders to look toward the segment with the aim of unlocking the potential therein.
This strategy, according to according to Mr. Kola Ashiru-Balogun, who is a stakeholder in real estate development, there is a need to restrategise so as to achieve optimum goal of property development.
He said, a critical area to focus on, is affordable housing delivery for potential seekers.
According to him, “Why affordable housing? It is very easy for everybody to go into the mid-market, high-end sectors of the market, but if you can really tackle affordable housing issues, then you’ll see a lot of opportunities there.
He said to tap those opportunities, investors should be able to have land, you can’t just go into the market and say you want to buy land at today’s prices, because it has to be a long- term thing. You have to be able to develop skills; sell properties in thousands; and be able to develop and deliver those properties in thousands.”
He said for example, last year, “In spite of the economic downturn, we saw one of the most numbers of units in the history of ARM Properties; we sold almost 600 units. The plan now is to build on that.”
Ashiru-Balogun also noted that there the Nigerian market is not only dynamic but challenging, adding that, “if you build and want to sell 10,000 houses, will you find 10,000 buyers?”
He said they have been advising the federal government to come up with social housing scheme, and that they are collaborating with the government on its housing plans.
He said, “For us, any home between N3.5 million and N15 million is affordable.” Identify land within that bracket and build one and two-bedroom flats and detached houses. What drives it is price.”
He said that the other factor that would help in providing funds for uptake of affordable homes is better mortgage structure, explaining that it was only in Nigeria that prospective buyers pay outright for whatever they bought.
