Executive pinpoints delivery as a major problem of real estate in Nigeria

Emmanuel Okogun, a business development executive at Grenadines Homes LTD, has found a major problem in real estate in Nigeria.

He also called out lack of integrity, overpriced houses, inaccessible finances and unprofessionalism as vital challenges.

“You have a lot of people who are not sincere in the business, you have a lot of players who are not professional. They hear there is money in real estate, they just assemble a team and begin to do real estate and they can’t deliver. Delivery is a major problem in the practice of real estate in Nigeria. The area of affordability: sometimes these houses are overpriced. Yes we have mortgage and National housing scheme but the process and bureaucracy of getting to access those funds is another issue that regulators should also look at.”

Another problem he highlighted in the real estate industry was mortgage.

“In developed world you would access mortgage facilities for as long as 15/20years and that’s why you find young people owning housing there but here you must have worked all your years before you can afford to own a house or you could have stolen money from government before you can afford a structure because you don’t have mortgages that can assist moderate income earners to acquire properties in this country."

Emmanuel still acknowledged all the efforts made by the private sector, Government and all real estate stakeholders towards solving the housing unit deficit estimated to be 17million.