Developers Seek Remedial Alternatives As Housing Market Falters

Billboard that fell and destroyed a building and truck, during a recent rain storm in Benin City.

As business in the built
industry take a downturn, investors have began to seek alternatives to houses, offices and lands sales.
Some developers who spoke to The Tide said they were working for alternatives in other areas of the industry.
An investor in real estate, Mr. Adda Stanford, lamented that it was getting increasingly difficult to sell landed properties or to even get new tenants owing to the harsh economic situation across the nation.
According to him,, “it is difficult for people to buy landed properties now, we can’t even increase rents because the tenant has to even pay the old rent, how much more an increment, rather, he would use whatever extra money he has for food for his family. On the other hand, there are no new tenants coming to rent houses for fear of the high rentage.
He further, said “the current economic situation caused by global oil sector downturn, has caused many business to diversify, I am diversifying too. I am now looking at hostels. I already have a bank facility if I don’t use it, I’ll still be paying the bank so I had to look for a way of making money”.
“Come what may, students must go to school and they cannot do so leaning on the streets, so at worst they pair to pay the rents and the good thing is that as they graduate the new students coming in and you as the hostel owner, you have the prerogative to increase the rent, we are all struggling to survive”, he said. Another investor, Mr. Chima Omeh, Managing Director, Boeing Venture, who said he was veering into the hospitality business, said, “Government is not doing enough to help us in the real industry sector, their disposition to many things has not done anything to encourage property investors, given some government policies that have done more harm than good to the real estate industry”.
He said, “as we strive to make the state an investor’s haven, surely new arrivals to the state would need accommodation, so that is what we are doing now, mind you, when they come in, they would use our Taxis, eat in our restaurants, buy our stuff as souvenirs, this means more business for the state. So I am convinced I am in the right business, we were told to diversify, afterall”. He further said, “the hospitality business has potential to flourish and increase the revenue of the state.
Omeh wondered why a by hotel which used to be a huge revenue earner for the state and the pride of the Garden City, like Hotel Olympia, be allowed to go moribund I even heard it was once used as an office complex.
He called on the government to revisit the issue of Hotel Olympia and the Airport Hotel, Omagwa.