Connectnigeria Articles

With Nigeria’s great potentials and huge resources, the Real Estate Sector is still in a rut as several factors combine to make housing and property development more difficult than it should be. Change seems to be on the way as the maiden edition of Real Estate Unite is about to launch. It is an event with great promise to revitalise the sector, and explore ways through which the untapped potentials of Nigeria’s Real Estate can drive the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as it is in other emerging economies. On Wednesday June 13, 2012, members of the press, and stakeholders in the Real Estate sector gathered at the Bhive Café, in Lekki Phase 1, for the media launch of the Real Estate Unite Conference and Awards, Lagos 2012. The event is organised by 3Invest Limited, the company behind the premier Real Estate information service portal in Nigeria, 3Investonline.com, and Nigeria’s first syndicated real estate radio programme Real Estate ON Air. The press conference featured speeches by industry professionals like Chief Kola Akomolede, President, The International Real Estate Federation, (FIABCI); Mr Allan Ali, CEO Property Express; Mr. Peter Bamkole, Director, Entrepreneurship Development Centre EDC, Lagos Business School; and Mr Afolabi Imokhuede, Intervention Lead, DFID-GEMS 2, whose organisation is partnering with Real Estate Unite. These experienced industry professionals discussed issues that plagued the Nigerian real estate sector, from the imbalance between demand and supply of affordable housing to the astronomical cost of land and building materials to the implementation of government policies that will make property developers and prospective homeowners realise their dreams of building, and living in, tasteful homes. In her opening address the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of 3Invest Limited, Ruth Obih, described Real Estate Unite as “an international business-to-business event that seeks to host all aspects of Nigeria’s real estate industry under one pavilion. It is designed to – through conferences, seminars and workshops – expose the issues challenging Nigeria’s Real Estate sector, and offer practical solutions through the expertise and experiences of carefully selected panel of speakers within and outside the shores of Africa.” She also said that the mission of Real Estate Unite is to open up the immeasurable potentials in Nigeria’s real estate sector in order to attract global investments, which will be beneficial to the nation’s economy. The theme of this year’s inaugural event, “Jumpstarting Nigeria’s Real Estate for Global Investment”, encapsulates that mission. Ms Obi recognised that the major challenges in the Nigerian Real Estate sector are finite and defined. She indicated that the event would deviate from the standard process of solving challenges where meetings occur, solutions are proffered, communiqués are released, and eventually things hardly improve. She said: “We found that individual discussions and solutions as it has been the tradition over the years, have recorded marginal success and will still continue to be insufficient until concerted efforts, like the Real Estate Unite, are made to interlink the issues and forge a common front”. Also, speaking at the media launch, Chief Kola Akomolede said his association endorsed the event because of its novel approach to the challenges in the industry. He was visibly frustrated by the state of the industry, and said he agrees with Ruth Obih that the major challenge is implementation of solutions. Other notable personalities at the event were Mr Roland Igbinoba, CEO Pison Housing Company and Mr Emeka Okafor, CEO Connectnigeria.com, also a partner with the upcoming event. Real Estate Unite is a two day, multifaceted event designed to hold annually. This maiden edition is billed to hold in September, and will explore pertinent challenges in Real Estate Finance, Regulation, Sustainability, Infrastructure, hospitality and Commercial Real Estate in Nigeria. For more information send an email to events@3investonline.com or call any of the following numbers: +234 7055503030, +234 8133061959. To connect via social media, visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/3invest and follow them on Twitter at twitter.com/3invest. To learn more about 3Invest’s online portal, visit the website at www.3investonline.com. Pictures at the event: