“We introduced `sack your landlord’ scheme for tenants to-rent-to-own-properties”

Debo Adejana is the Managing Director /CEO of Lagos based, Realty Point Limited. In this interview, he compares Lagos and Abuja property mart. Tell us about your property endeavour? Even though we have our head office in Lagos, we`ve just launched our housing units in Abuja. We have terraces in Jahi district, Abuja and we […]

Debo Adejana is the Managing Director /CEO of Lagos based, Realty Point Limited. In this interview, he compares Lagos and Abuja property mart.

Tell us about your property endeavour?

Even though we have our head office in Lagos, we`ve just launched our housing units in Abuja. We have terraces in Jahi district, Abuja and we have eight units and have same in Lagos. In Lagos, we are located in Lekki Phase two and we have 160 units there.

When did you start real estate business?

We have been in business for 11 years now.

 Now that you are in Abuja. What kind of housing are we looking at in terms  of class?

 I would not like to categorize our properties as low or medium. They are units of terraces and in Lagos we have something close to that, but I am sure we will eventually come to building middle and low income houses in no distant time. What we have here is just like a reference point. By the time we fully start I am certain we will take care of middle and low income earners. People always ask me where we have sold and this is why we are creating reference points.

How would you compare your housing projects  in Lagos and Abuja in terms of structure and models?

When it comes to taste and style, what  we  are giving  out is high taste apartments commensurate to Abuja and Lagos. Like I said, what we have in Lagos is classified as for medium and high class but we will do an all-encompassing job soon.

How is your payment like especially in the face of dwindling economy?

We are very considerate, and we have different payment plans that are flexible enough for prospective clients. You can do an outright payment or we make reservations with N99,999 that’s approximately N100,000 and we will now give you 60 day grace period to come up with initial payment and that’s around 20 to 30 percent of cost price. And the remaining 70percent you can spread to over 36 months. In Lagos, we have rent to own program. You will be required to pay initial payment of 20 to 30 percent and will move in, after which we will now spread the remaining payment over minimum of 10 years and maximum of 15 years.

Can you tell us how many houses you have both in Lagos and Abuja?

In Lagos we have 160 different apartments, ranging from studios, one, two and three bedroom floors. Then in Abuja we have four bedroom duplex, terrace duplex and boy’s quarters

What are the options you are exploring to get housing to other parts of Nigeria?

We have established our presence in Lagos and Abuja and we are certainly thinking of other areas like Port Harcourt. We definitely know that other parts of Nigeria require this solution for shelter that we have and we are doing all we can to cover as many as possible locations. We are all aware how expensive rent is in major cities in Nigeria, you see people paying over a million for 3 bedroom flats and all that and that’s why we came up with the “sack your landlord” policy that allows you to rent to own.

What are the challenges that you face in Abuja that are not in Lagos or vice versa?

Well in Abuja the regulatory framework, approvals and documentation is a lot more transparent and well known to the developers and it takes less time. But in Lagos, it is very cumbersome, even though there have been a lot of regulations to make it easier, yet, it isn’t there yet. A lot of developers submit applications and move to site before these papers are even sorted. And real estate is very sensitive to timeline as any time spent outside of your timeline will cost you more financial burden. You know we might have borrowed money from a bank and all that and issues around investors. Off takers are also expectant and we must deliver because projects are anchored on them. In Abuja, I think the major issue is that cost of finishing is higher, because in Lagos we have access to the ports and we get things cheaper than we would here which increases our overall development cost and inadvertently price in the long run. On the mainland we tend to pay less because of the nature of the soil same with Abuja. But on the mainland, we have a lot of issues around soil texture and nature. So, when we do our foundation, we spend more on the island in order to make it solid. Both markets have their own peculiarities. In Abuja, I am not saying what labour wage is in Abuja but in Lagos they are readily available. The major challenge on that is just the quality of service. We usually get more guys to work for us from neighboring countries. And we bring in expatriates also should a client want high quality work.

As a developer, how have you been able to maintain high quality standard on your buildings?

As a company, we don’t compromise on quality as it is even the bedrock of our service delivery. We do not do trade off  between quality and cost. We focus on our area of strength which is being developers and we have clear cut standards that our workers or anyone to be engaged must meet or probably exceed before we engage them. They are usually best of hands. We always look out for technical competence, ability, experience, and as well as certifications those are the four major things you must meet before you are engaged and we don’t circumvent them on any condition.  You must have also displayed significant experience in the sector.

What is your take on patronizing made in Nigeria goods for building in order to grow the economy?

Well on that there are a lot of factors; sometimes clients make certain demands that are not available in the local market but on other projects we get to make comparative analysis, look at cost and availability and then we make a decision on what to go for per time.