Mixta Nigeria bullish in affordable housing amid challenging economic environment

As a demonstration of resilience in the face a very challenging economic environment that has crimped consumer purchasing power significantly, Mixta Nigeria remains committed and focused on its mission to deliver houses targeted at the affordable segment of the property market.

Mixta Nigeria is the new face or rebranded ARM Properties which has been making waves in the Nigerian real estate sector since 2006, having  grown to become one of the Nigerian property market leaders with high profile  projects that include the Oluwole Urban Market in Lagos, Adiva Plainfield, FourPoints by Sheraton, Lakowe Lake and Resorts, etc.

This  new identify is concomitant  to the parent company, ARM’s acquisition of Mixta Africa a couple of years ago and, according to the authorities of the company, the rebranding into Mixta Nigeria was to refocus their business and separate real estate from the investment side of ARM.

Mixta Africa is a reputable real estate investment and development company based in Spain with strong presence in African countries including Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal and now Cote D’voire  and now Nigeria. It has, over the years, delivered over 6,000 housing units and has brought that expertise into Nigeria to deliver more homes to the Nigerian market.

Since after the acquisition and rebranding, Mixta Nigeria has re-strategized  and  refocused its business into affordable housing development and the reason for affordable housing is because it is very easy for everybody to go into the middle and high end markets.

The choice is also consistent with the vision of the company. Deji Ali, Mixta Africa’s chairman and CEO, had disclosed that the  key interest for them was affordable homes which, he hoped, would constitute about 60 percent of their business, portfolio and investment in various countries where they operate.

“With Mixta Africa, we have the expertise and capacity to deliver housing to the market”, said Kola Ashiru-Balogun, Mixta Nigeria’s managing Director, at an interactive session with the media in Lagos recently. He explained that their decision to integrate Mixta Africa into their business was to enable them to restructure and focus on delivering affordable housing.

“I think we have done that successfully in the past two years. Last year, in spite of the economic downturn, we sold the most number of our units in the history of ARM Properties. We sold almost 600 units and that’s just the first phase of the plan. The plan now is to continue to build on that”, he said.

He disclosed that within Lagos, they have rolled out three new projects that include Fara Park 2 which is rising on the back of existing Fara Park Estate they had done before. “We have about 186 units there that we have just launched. Another project is at Lakowe in Lekki area in which we have launched 96 units. We have another within our Lakowe Lake and Golf Resort  where we will be delivering about 200 units this year alone.  All of these have been sold. It has taken a long time but I am glad we are back to the market now”, he enthused.

Though the company is still considering going to Abuja, the federal capital territory, it is already in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. “We are already in Port Harcourt where we have acquired 200 hectares of land. Within this parcel of land, we have created a portion for a golf course and another portion for affordable housing. But they all share the same infrastructure. We have started work on the golf course and also on some houses. We will deliver some of this houses towards the end of next year”, the managing director assured.

He noted that  their  delivering and execution capacity is much better now through the integration of Mixta Africa, recalling that in the past they had more finance people than engineers within the group, but today,  it is the other way round.

He was quick to distinguished  social housing  from affordable housing that they deliver to the market. Affordable or economic housing, he explained, is any house selling for between N3.5 million and N15 million while social housing is any housing arrangement whose price is below N3.5 million.

He explained further that what they offer to the market are homes and “when we talk about homes, we are talking about decent accommodation with infrastructure;  it is very difficult for any developer in Nigeria to build and sell any home for below N2.5 million to N3 million”.

In spite of the company’s success story, challenges still remain and Ashiru-Balogun listed them as financing and communities issues. Others are issues bordering on title for the land, issues with mortgages which is constrained by high interest rate and the challenge of affordability.

CHUKA UROKO