Premiere apartments: Responding to the quality question in housing market

Providing answer or responding to the quality question in the Nigeria housing market remains as knotty as it is elusive as getting affordable quality housing, especially in the mid-market segment remains an onerous task.
Greedy developers have, over the years, become more creative in offering schemes that only look legitimate on the surface. Upon further investigation, a prospective tenant who is smart realises that such schemes lack substance. Others ignorantly part with their money and, in the best instance, get an unsatisfactory and low quality house in exchange.
To own a house in city centres is not for the lily livered. The burdensome process of acquiring legitimate land, securing building approval and other land documentation as well as the cost of building and the supervisory time required are better entrusted to professional developers who are trained to handle the process seamlessly.
“We have considered all the factors important to a prospective home owner”, says Peter Coker, the MD of Previs Developments. “Quality, affordability, good neighbourhood, infrastructure, ease of living and security are some of the features of our developments. We began recently sales in Premiere Apartments which embodies the vision of the company to provide quality housing to Nigeria’s middle market.”
Premiere Apartments, located in Lekki Scheme 2, consists of 12 blocks of 72 3-bedroom apartments. Each apartment comes with 3 bedrooms including an en-suite master bedroom, a shared bathroom with adjoining toilet, and a guest toilet/washroom; a spacious living/dining room; and a fitted kitchen, spaces that speaks of the joy and ease of modern living.
The estate is conveniently located close to recreational centres, shopping malls, private schools as well as a fire station. The new Shoprite mall (the largest shopping mall in Lagos with popular brands including Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, Game and Shoprite), Atican beach and the Lagos Business School/Pan Atlantic University are all within 10 minutes drive of the estate.
Previs Developments offers a unique and innovative homeownership model known as ‘Pay Rent Own Property’. “Our projects are delivered through this innovative model which we specifically designed for the Nigerian market,” explained Adebola Seun-Ayeni, the Marketing Manager.
Previs Developments, after about 3 -4 years of reviewing and using the rent-to-own model, which incidentally seems to be the most common model for developers today, has successfully launched this modified plan that allows prospective home owners to own their homes while paying rent. A typical Pay Rent Own Property contract runs for about 10 – 15 years with annual rental payments that remain constant throughout the period.

A distinguishing feature of this model is the documentation that the company provides. A tenant enters into a contract that protects both parties and also explains the limitations. This means that without prior savings, and at no interest, a subscriber can own a home in Lekki or any other area in Lagos within 10 – 15 years.

The company believes that nobody, including Previs, can claim to be the pioneer of rent-to-own. This is an established model of home ownership in Europe, Australia and America. The Lagos Homs project uses a rent-to-own model and now, the Federal Government is also adopting it. The reason for its recent proliferation in Nigeria is not far-fetched: it is simply the best model for the nation to tackle its home ownership deficit with any hope of success.
The company recalls that, having used the rent to own model in the past, and also proposed it to the Lagos State government at a point, itjk understands how this model works and can immediately identify pitfalls and scams.
“Not all projects labelled ‘rent-to-own’ are actually using that model. For example, a developer who requests a 30 percent down payment for a project and staggered subsequent payments to complete the balance 70 percent within 3 – 5 years is not using the rent to own model. Or a developer who may actually be an investment banker using real estate to pool funds and thus does not do a full disclosure to tenants is also not staying true to the model”, Seun-Ayeni warned.
He disclosed that the company offers a free consultancy and advisory service to any rent-to-own prospect, regardless of the company offering the service, assuring that they would help ensure that subscribers are getting the best deal possible just as they would identify red herrings. “It is our desire to help mitigate the risks in rent-to-own transactions”, he assured.

CHUKA UROKO