RIS opens with insights on need for collaboration in Real Estate

Stakeholders at the on going Redefined Investor Series (RIS) have stressed on the need for collaboration between private and public sector, partnerships leading to joint venture to enable successful investment and spur Nigeria’s economic growth.

Udo Okonjo, CEO/Vice Chair, Fine & Country West Africa said she hoped that this year’s RIS would act as a catalyst to create winning collaborations among stakeholders so that Nigeria could grow its economy.

“The case for collaborating in real estate cannot be stronger than in a sluggish ‘recovery’ economy, where there’s not only massive infrastructure and protracted housing deficit, but also huge amount of underutilised and idle asset,” Okonjo said in her key not address at the on going RIS.

Nigeria with the highest population in Africa has about 20 million housing deficit and BusinessDay survey has revealed that about 90 percent of house acquisition in the country is funded by individual savings, owing to the funding challenges in the country’s property industry.

Nigeria has one of the highest mortgage rate in the Africa region, its mortgage to GDP ratio is less that 1 percent, as against 2 percent in Ghana and over 30 percent in the more developed countries.

Andrei Ugarov, Partner at PwC, speaking on the topic; successful joint ventures & other funding options explained that there is need for real estate investors, developers and stakeholders to seek partnership and joint venture in financing a project without necessarily having to go to banks for loans.

“Real estate players shouldn’t have the mind set of primarily going to the banks to source for fund to execute their projects, they can have partnership and have a joint venture to finance the project,”Ugarov mentioned.

This year’s theme of the Redefined investors series focuses on; Collaborating For Nee Heights and National Growth.

Endurance Okafor