‘I expect higher degree of transparency in real estate supply and demand’

Gradually but steadily, the Nigerian property market is growing and maturing, presenting different layers of opportunities for players. One aspect of such growth is the emergence of online portals which serve as meeting points for property sellers and intending buyers. OBI EJIMOFO, Managing Director of Lamudi, a major player in this market space, speaks to ODINAKA MBONU on how the online industry is contributing its quota in driving real estate market growth, its potentials and challenges. Excerpts

Give us a brief overview of Lamudi

Lamudi is an online marketplace for property. It is a site where people willing to sell or rent property such as land, houses and apartments can meet with intending buyers. We basically provide a trusted platform for these connections to take place. However, we do not carry out any financial transactions on the site; we just make it possible for buyers to reach sellers.

What informed the transition from Vamido to Lamudi?

Lamudi is the parent brand for over 28 ventures in emerging economies across the world. These ventures were originally established under different names. So, for Nigeria it was Vamido, but in October last year we made the decision to collapse all these individual brand names into Lamudi and since then our operations and transactions have soared.

How has the market responded to your services?

We have officially been around for 10 months and within this brief period we have seen Lamudi grow from a small start-up into the largest player in the online property space in Nigeria today. We have seen an immense increase in the number of sellers on our platform as we now have over 4,700 individual sellers on this platform. We have also seen the number of properties listed quadruple in the last four months to over 21,000 today. We have also seen buyers’ recognition and confidence in our brand expand. We currently have over 16,000 property seekers weekly. I feel the surge in online mobile activity across all sectors of the economy has contributed to these achievements.

What distinguishes Lamudi from its contemporaries?

The online property space is an interesting industry because it combines real estate and online business, both of which have low degree of consumer trust due to the potential risk of fraud associated with each sector. Hence, as a brand, our focus has been on building trust between the sellers and the buyers. We also focus on quality. We work with our sellers to ensure they provide us with quality pictures, accurate details and descriptions of properties before listing on our site.

We are constantly improving our services by introducing continuous innovation into the market. Last week, we launched the Lamudi app for the IPhone and IPad. Last month, we launched an app for Android phone users and two months before that, we launched the Lamudi journal, which features knowledge, news and insights about real estate, home design and urban living in Nigeria. Though it has not been easy, we are beginning to see the dividends.

What are your challenges in the industry at large?

We currently find ourselves having to work a lot on educating our sellers on how to fully leverage the potential of online channels in their business. The second challenge is a case of managing our growth. We have a lot more demand than we can currently cater for, so we have to ensure we have the right balance in staff strength and ability. 

For the industry, I feel there is a need for all online operators to realise that Nigeria’s property market is not all about Lagos. At Lamudi, we are already establishing footprints in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan and we are looking to expand into other cities very soon. I feel we (operators) need to look at the property market from a national perspective. 

Where do you expect to see Lamudi and online business in the next five years?

I will like to see Lamudi remain the largest online market place in Nigeria and also expand its operations into other services relevant to the real estate market. Five years from now, people should be looking at Nigeria’s online real estate market and realizing that they are five years too late. For broader real estate sector, I hope to see a higher degree of transparency in supply and demand. We need buyers to become empowered with the real pricing and availability of property at a granular level.

And for the sellers, I would hope they obtain a clear understanding of the demand in the market so that they can stop building five-bedroom detached houses for sale in areas crying out for three-bedroom rental apartments. And this is where we see Lamudi playing a vital role in the future—providing transparency and visibility that matches real estate supply to actual demand.

ODINAKA MBONU