Recession: Vacant apartments litter upscale Lagos

Investigations by Daily Times reveal an increasing glut of vacant apartments in upscale areas like Ikoyi, Lekki, Omole Phase 1 and 2, and other high brow areas. This is even as the Financial Derivatives Company Limited recently stated that “the number of vacant properties in the upper class real estate neighborhoods of Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi has risen by 72 percent over the last 18 months.

Rather than tenants, weather-beaten inscriptions like “To-let”, “Vacant”, and “For Lease” adorn the walls of numerous new and renovated buildings in Lekki, Victoria Island, and other choice areas like Magodo, Ajah and Ikeja GRA.
This, according to stakeholders in the sector, is due to overpricing and the recession currently facing the country.
Investigations further revealed that a two-bedroom flat ranges from N1 million and N1.2 million in Omole Phase 2, while the same apartment goes for N2m and above in Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi which is in a stark contrast to the N150,000 and N200,000 that the same apartment goes for in areas like Alagbado, and Ogun State suburbs like Mowe and Ibafo.
Femi Ajayi, who recently left his apartment at Dolphin Estate for Mowe, revealed that he had to take that decision due to the realities on ground.

“I am working with one of the big banks in Victoria Island. To be close to my place of work, I was living at Dolphin Estate but because of the recent situation of the country, I have to quickly develop my property at Mowe and move in,” he revealed.
Speaking on the development, an Estate Surveyor and Valuer, Wole Leye of Wole Leye and Co., linked the emerging trend to the economic reality in the country.

“Quite a number of people who were initially living in those choice areas cannot continue to do so anymore apparently due to the fact that income is not what it used to be. The suburbs are currently experiencing boom because it is hard to find so much of void properties unlike, what is happening in choice areas like Ikoyi, Victoria Island, and Lekki where there are a lot of void properties. Even those properties that are occupied right now, you will find out that a lot of tenants are owning huge rents,” he said.