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In spite of the biting economic situation in the country, there are indications that intense rush for properties may soon reach the crescendo in the eyebrow Lekki peninsula, Ikoyi and Banana Island.
Checks by our reporter shows that the continuous jostle to acquire properties in the classy parts of Lagos State is accountable for the high rise in prices.
It is noted that the values of properties along Trinity, close to Dangote Refinery, Lekki Deep Sea Port, and export zones have exploded with the rapid development heralding sanitation and flooding challenges.
As new properties spring up in the areas, building construction companies as well as artisans make brisk business and continue to smile to the bank.
A concrete blocks and interlocking paving stones producing and industrial block-making machines company called Udoka Okoli’s Construction Business is expanding as demands increase within the axis.
Having begun operations in the past 15 years along the Lekki-Epe Expressway in Lagos, the company has grown into a big outfit branching out into real estate.
The Managing Director of BuffaloCrete Construct, Okoli, was quoted as saying, “The rate of development on this axis is very high.”
The astronomical rise in the asking prices for land across the Lagos real estate market is said to be in contrast with the economic reality of the country.
Banana Island, Nigeria’s most expensive neighbourhood to date, leads the pack of neighbourhoods in that class where land value has skyrocketed.
Pre-COVID 19 period, cost of land in Banana Island surged from N600,000 per square metre to about N1.3 million, representing a little above 100 per cent increase.
The Chief Executive Officer of Fine and Country West Africa,
Udo Okonjo, said in an earlier interview that the asking and pricing of property in the eyebrow parts of Lagos was not affected even by the negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic of year 2020 and 2021.
Udo Okonjo, said in an earlier interview that the asking and pricing of property in the eyebrow parts of Lagos was not affected even by the negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic of year 2020 and 2021.
She had been quoted as saying that “The interesting thing is that we saw a dramatic demand for land all across Ikoyi, especially Banana Island, during the pandemic, starting from around April 2020 to the dizzying heights the prices have taken by mid-2022.”
It was, indeed observed that parts of the main attractions on the island include the coastal beauty, availability of infrastructure, security and high social class, but also naira devaluation is said to have availed persons who have access to hard currencies such as the US dollars and the British pounds to take advantage by acquiring properties more and more.
Between the year 2020 and 2021, experts recalled that prices of land went from between N380,000 per square metre and N450,000 per square metre to a post-Covid 2022 average pricing of approximately N800,000 per square metre—N950,000 per square metre for the higher density roads, representing over 100 percent increase within the old Ikoyi and environs.
For instance, Okonjo said, “Lekki Phase 1 is not too far off in appreciation because traditionally as ‘a not-so-distant cousin’ to Ikoyi as an upmarket location, it benefits from the growth across the bridge.”
With average prices standing at N350,000/sqm and N400,000/sqm from pre-Covid prices in 2020 of about N200,000/sqm, buyers are feeling the pressure as most mid-size developers scramble to acquire plots for new mini-size/cluster estates mid-size homes projects.
Also, land price has surged in Lekki Phase 1. According to Okonjo, the place is traditionally, not-so-distant to Ikoyi as an upmarket location as “it benefits from the growth across the bridge.
“With average prices now at between N350,000 per square metre and N400,000 per square metre from pre-Covid prices of about N200,000 per square metre, buyers are definitely feeling the pressure here, especially as most mid-size developers scramble to acquire plots for new mini-size/cluster estates mid-size homes projects.”
The real estate practitioner explained that investors put money into real estate in a bid to diversify from the dwindling stock market and to protect their local currency reserves against galloping inflation.
“Most investors have begun exploring longer-term residential and commercial real estate developments, typically on a joint venture basis with experienced contractors/developers for the much bigger projects by locking down plots of land,” she noted.
Meanwhile, the development is not limited to the island alone as prices also surge on the mainland, up to Ibeju-Lekki and Epe where price increases are driven by new developments. In Ibeju Lekki, for instance, developers are acquiring land in response to developments such as the establishment of the Dangote Refinery and the Lekki Deep Seaport to provide accommodation for the staff of the companies.
Checks showed that land prices in Epe have gone up from an average of NGN10,156.34/sqm and are usually sold in various sizes ranging from 150sqm, 300sqm, 450sqm to 600sqm.
With the high potentials that property acquisition have over other high risk businesses, real estate practitioners said that it would be unlikely that the rate at which people scramble to get choice properties reduce in spite of the biting economy in the country as that appears to serve a save haven to investors.
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