Gran Imperio shifts focus, offers ‘affordable yet upscale’ homes

Changing dynamics in the economy in general and the real estate sector in particular has seen major shifts in strategy and focus by investors and developers alike in response to the reality staring at them.

For Gran Imperio Projects Limited (GIPL), this change is not only fundamental but also instructive, having realised that, increasingly, the Nigerian property market is getting top-heavy with dwindling demand and high vacancy rate which analysts estimate to be 20-30 percent, while the mid low-end market is almost empty with soaring and unmet demand.

A relatively young but bullish real estate investment and development firm, Gran Imperio is also a construction management and dredging company reputed for its commitment to delivering substantial value to its institutional, corporate and private clients.

Within the short time it has existed as a company, GIPL has been actively involved in the construction of over 3,500 housing units within Lagos State and, according to its officials, most of these houses are in the upper-end market, going for N40 million, N50 million and above per unit.

“Our focus has always been upscale gated communities; we have homes of N40 million to N60 million but we have changed our strategy with fresh focus on affordable yet upscale homes of N15 million to N25 million,” Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the company’s MD/CEO, stated at a press conference in Lagos.

In keeping with this new strategy, Ogunwusi disclosed that they were positioning strategically to plug into the Federal Government’s Mortgage Refinance Company (MRC) for financing their development.

This new focus gave birth to the company’s latest development – the SouthPointe Estate. The estate located at Laffiaji, off Lekki-Epe Expressway, the CEO explained, was a design for the development of an affordable luxury residential community offering spectacular ambience, detailed finishing, security and leisure in a conducive environment.

It comprises 36 units of three-bedroom bungalows plus boys’ quarter; 44 units of two-bedroom bungalows plus boys’ quarter, club house and swimming pool, commercial area, purified water supply, security services, among other facilities.

The company is also the developer of Jacob Mews in Yaba and Lake View Park Estate phases 1&2 in Lekki. Lake View Park 2 is a mixed-use development offering homes, site and serviced plots of land.

The high point of this project is that apart from the mortgage facility GTHomes provides for prospective buyers, the Gran Imperio Co-operative Multi-purpose Society is another investment window on the estate and, according to Enitan Tunde Ibironke, the society’s coordinator, “All that a prospective buyer needs is the required minimum deposit and the society will underwrite the balance.”

On his part, Kazeem Owolabi, senior manager, GTHomes, assured prospective buyers that they wanted to be bullish about providing mortgage services to potential homeowners, promising that they were working hard to lower interest rate on their loans and advances.