Real Estate: Experts Differ In 2011 Predictions

Prediction by experts in the housing and property sector for the year 2011 have revealed marked differences in their speculations. On one hand, is the view that looks forward to a drastically improved economy with significant home sales as well as a boom in the home ownership level, while the other views things that the year will be bleak for the real estate sector for some perceived reasons.

Some of their views hinged on the fact that 2010 was an exceptional year in the real estate history in Nigeria which was characterised by virtual collapse of the supply side and stagnation of the demand side of the market.

The experts who are practitioners in the real estate industry remarked that new policies introduced by the apex financial institution, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may show signs of gradual recovery, and that there was still a huge demand in the rental and sale of properties, especially in the middle to low income sector over supply, where development has more or less been comatose.

Speaking in a chat with The Tide on the 2011 real estate situation, in Port Harcourt an estate surveyor and valuer, Mr. Chidi Emekwesu posited that 2011 is a major election year, and as such both investors and customers will want to see events unfold before plowing funds into any business.

Chidi also posited that investment from abroad will be put on hold until the election is concluded, adding that the Federal Government’s Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) might throw the bulk of the asset into the already depressed market, and such might compound the situation.

He posited that 2011 will experience minimal activity in the real estates sector, as things might settle by the second quarter of the year after election.

Not sharing the thoughts of Chidi, Akin Adediji, who is also a member of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuer (NIESV) on his part stated that 2011 looks more promising.

He said “We should expect increase in activities in the housing sector. With the take-off of AMCON, the banks may resume lending to developers in the sector and home buyers alike”.

According to Adediji “When once buyers can have access to mortgage to enable them buy and own houses, demand will be stimulated, and this will lead to increase in both prices and activities in the construction and housing more than what was known last year”.

Although they agreed that the insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta in the context of kidnapping among others had affected development, but that government must muster the political will to address the matter, for real development to take place.

Corlins Walter