Expert sees collaboration, PPP driving FDI into Nigerian property market
For Nigeria to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) into its property market, there is need for stakeholders including players, government and associations to come together with the right solution, Bill Endsley, principal, World Citizen Consulting, has said.
To him, Nigerian property market has great potential and there are lots of institutional and other investors around the world who are looking to invest in the property sector.
Endsley, who disclosed this in Lagos on Thursday, at the opening of a 2-day training programme for real estate professionals on ‘Understanding Global Real Estate Market System: Exploring Real Estate Investment’, explained that the training was aimed at equipping the participants with the knowledge and skill required to convince investors to come to Nigeria.
According to him, for investors to invest, there is need to have risk assessment and transparency to enable them to look into Nigeria and see the risks.
“What I will really like to see is the government, the private sector and civil society showing understanding that this job is for everyone and that it cannot be done by the government or others alone. All three players must come together to understand the system and find the right solution,” Endsley stated.
He noted that Nigerian players are individually doing what they want to do, which is not working out well for the growth of the property market, stating that such will not work unless the sector has a corporation called public private partnership (PPP) for the people.
Stating that Nigerian government is interested in moving towards getting FDI, Endsley pointed out that the next step lies in achieving transparency, which the institutional investor can see in order to price the risk and to come to Nigeria.
Right now, Nigerian property market may be opaque and not so clean. I always talk about clean windows that people can see in and it does not matter what they see. If you clean the windows and the investors can see the situation, no matter what they risks are, they can mitigate those risks,” Endsley advised.
On the role interest rate plays in growing the property market, Endsley attributed the high interest rate to the inability of Nigerian banks to price the risk of giving loans. “Banks realised that it is so risky to give loans which is why they have to charge very high to protect their money. In US, the rate is so low because there are millions of transactions that they can put together using the database.
“Nigeria has to start with the property rights, what that risks are for the banks and what the regulations are because most times in the developing countries the regulations are there to protect the companies and not to spur innovations”, he noted.
To improve on Nigeria’s property right, Endsley said people should be able to register their title, find where their titles are and transfer their property from one person to another.
Adeniji Adele, president of FIBACI-Nigeria, had in his opening remarks stated that one of the goals of the chapter was to develop expertise in the built industry using education as its tool. He hoped that the training would provide the participants with knowledge of investment and global perspective in real estate.
The training, he pointed, would also enable Nigerians to gain competitive advantage, increase its earning potentials, expand its business network and effectively build global business.
“This gathering is to collaborate and change the perspective of real estate in Nigeria. It has to do with doing things alongside international standards. Nigeria is still at the low middle level and we need to be up there,” he added.
Earlier, Elizabeth Mendenhall, the president of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), United States of America; Richard Mendenhall, the former president, and Bill Endsley, Principal World Consulting, who were on a visit to the Nigerian chapter, had held a meeting with Rowland Abonta, president of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.
At the meeting, Abonta sought the support of NAR towards improving the Nigerian real estate industry, especially in strengthening ties with US professionals as well as boosting the capacity of practitioners in the area of training at both individual and corporate levels to enable them become globally relevant.
The institution also requested for a liaison officer that would manage communication between the two bodies.
While receiving awards from FIBACI-Nigeria, the NAR’s president welcomed the idea of collaboration, describing it as an opportunity to share information and assist in making the practice of real estate better in Nigeria.