‘We are in business to fill the gap and develop businesses around real estate’

For very good reasons, 3Invest Limited has been jamming the air-waves since it opened for business in Lagos a few years ago. RUTH OBIH the CEO of the company, in this interview, speaks about this young but dynamic real estate firm.  She also speaks about the Nigerian real estate sector, and the annual Real Estate Unite Conference, Awards and Exhibition organised by her firm which is holding today in Lagos at the Eko Hotel Convention Centre. She speaks with CHUKA UROKO.

Yours is a very young company. What exactly do you do that attracts so much attention?

As a company, we have been able to discover the gap in Nigerian real estate and what we have been doing over the past five to six years is to look for ways to fill this gap. That was how we came about our slogan ‘filling the gap’.  This is what we have been doing through our advocacy platform—the 3Invest Intelligence.  Basically, we are in the business of developing businesses around real estate, not just about development and marketing, but also providing  services that help to improve the sector.

As you know, we have been doing conferences annually; we also have the online platforms and a  radio show and these are the various ways through which, we feel,  we can disseminate the much needed information that is lacking in this sector.

You trained as a lawyer. Why this interest in, and passion for real estate; what is in it for you?

My experience in real estate goes back to when I was growing up. Actually, one of the reasons I studied Law was because of an experience I had with a bank. My father had taken a mortgage facility from a bank for his business with one of our property. I was the only one at home; I just got back from school and the bankers came to raid our house, saying something about my father and mortgage which I didn’t understand.

As a child, I didn’t know what mortgage was and  hearing about  it and foreclosure laws  made me curious and I wanted to know more. In fact, it gave me two life experiences: It made me skeptical about bank loans and also made me interested in understanding real estate, legal mortgage and all the things around them.

So, that was how my passion for real estate started. As an adult, having studied law, I had interest in property law. So, when I went to the UK for a short break, I decided to do training because I actually wanted to practice in the UK as a lawyer so as to get international qualifications but I saw myself going into conveyance  which  is all about perfection of land documentation. So, I worked in a law firm that specialized in dealing with properties and from there, I developed interest in this business.

You have real estate experience from two worlds—Nigeria and UK. What are the gaps in Nigerian real estate as against what obtains the UK?

First of all, the Nigerian real estate is not, I won’t say immature  because it has been there for a long time, but I think it needs a lot of reforming.  Here we have a Land Use Act which governs land administration, but this very Act goes back over 30 years. It needs to be changed.

The law guiding real estate here is different from what we have in UK. The laws in UK are more flexible. The system of land ownership in the UK is different –it is freehold there while in Nigeria it is lease-hold.

Again, I’ve found a few things that they have done in the UK which we could imitate. The ownership of land here lies solely with the government which is why construction projects are cancelled, titles are withdrawn and land ownership is revoked and all that. These are all because of the Land Use Act.

This is the fourth edition of Real Estate Unite Conference and it has been getting better with each successive year. What has been sustaining this effort?

Real Estate Unite was actually developed for a reason. As I have said earlier, I grew up and schooled in Nigeria and I don’t have an international background. I am just a normal Nigerian girl that grew up at home. I am somebody that wants to learn. I don’t copy. I travel a lot and learn from each travel that I make because out there you see life from different perspectives.

Before I started organizing these events, I had been looking out for conferences that matched up to those I see outside the country and I never found any. So, I told myself that instead of sitting down and complaining, I should start one. This was how Real Estate Unite Conference was born.

What has been sustaining this conference really is support from people and I believe that anybody who does not support this conference does not believe in real estate sector growth in Nigeria. I believe too that being a delegate or exhibitor is for a reason and that, for me, is also support for the sector.

The conference is an opportunity for delegates or exhibitors to network and learn from other people. As an exhibitor, the conference offers you an opportunity to showcase what you have and how you package yourself, and also helps you to learn how to relate with other industry players.

I always tell people that the conference is not necessarily a place to get clients. It is also not a place to close deals, but to network and market yourself. Exhibitors must not , therefore, make the organizers think that they must provide buyers for them.

Looking back to when you started, what could you say is the high point of your operation?

The high point of the business has been the  setting up the advocacy plat form when we saw that there was a huge gap in terms of information and data in Nigeria and we thought  that as a young company with good vision to be a bigger global brand, we asked ourselves how we could start contributing to the eco-system of this real estate industry.

We started doing a little thing which at the beginning didn’t make sense to even me,not to talk about  the second person but which has also grown from nothing to something.