Dangote refinery, others elevate rural community to property investment hot spot
From a sleepy rural community lying on the fringes of the Lagos city centre, Ibeju Lekki has been elevated to a hot and sought after investment destination by the up-coming Dangote Refinery, multi billion naira Lekki-Epe international airport, a new sea port, etc, all within the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ).
All these have created an investment haven where people looking for land for investment or homeownership purposes are already jostling for available space along the whole stretch of that axis.
The up-coming projects hold promise for job creation and wealth generation not just for professionals, but also for all cadres of labour including artisans. The Dangote Refinery comes with petrochemical and fertilizer plants that are projected to be the largest in the world, making it an incredible industrial undertaking in the country and the most ambitious on the continent.
It is expected that the project will create 135,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs. What this means is that, by the time the project comes on stream by the first quarter of 2018 as projected, there will be mass movement of people towards that axis and increased demand for homes and commercial spaces.
“There is mass movement already to Ibeju Lekki; people are not waiting for the projects to be completed before taking position,” Yemi Madamidola, an estate developer, says.
“Many estates are springing up almost on daily basis as people are taking position for the expected boom in the property market of that axis,” Madamidola adds in a telephone interview. Apart from real estate, expectation is that this huge investment would attract other investors to the LFTZ such as ancillary industries that will service the refinery and other businesses such as shopping malls, banks, schools, etc, which will offer services to workers and sundry residents of the free trade zone.
Ngozi Uche, an executive director at Blessed Paradise Homes Limited, developers of Chosen Villa Estate in Ibeju Lekki, notes that it is a new dawn for that axis being the current real estate investment destination in Lagos State today.
“Ibeju Lekki is a wide expanse of land that hosts choice developmental projects,” Uche says, noting that apart from the Dangote Refinery comprising petrochemical industry and fertilizer plant, “there are other real estate demand drivers like the international (cargo) airport, Lekki International Golf Course, Pan Atlantic University, Eleganza Industries and many others; it is really a hot investment spot.”
What this means is that investors looking for where to push cash, especially now that inflation is diminishing the value of money on daily basis, Ibeju Lekki is a place to go. “Real estate is the only hedge we have against inflation in Nigeria today because there is no other asset class that investors can leverage on,” Madamidola posits.
Within this axis, there is an area known as Elerangbe located off Lekki-Epe Expressway, immediately after Pan Atlantic University, and about 20 minutes’ drive from Abijo Bus Stop. At the moment, it is the most attractive, investment wise, part of Ibeju Lekki, offering the cheapest plots of land for as low as N500,000 in some areas.
Although this axis looks relatively undeveloped, the many proposed key developmental projects coming will open it up to rapid development, and this explains the growing interest it enjoys from property investors.
Apart from the investment opportunities and interest these projects are already generating, the projects will also have great multiplier effects on growth and economy of the country, just as it is envisaged that they will also put Lagos State on an expansive growth path.
Aliko Dangote, president/CEO of Dangote Group, has assured that “by the time we finish these investments, especially the gas pipeline, a state like Lagos can run without any interruption of electricity power supply. It will be as good as living in London where you don’t see power outage,” meaning that opportunities also exist for investors in electricity value chain.