Yaba, Ebute-meta, Palm Grove, Ilupeju, others are becoming centers of attraction for real estate investment. DAYO AYEYEMI, reports.
SOME old neighbourhoods on the Lagos mainland such as Yaba, Surulere, Palm Grove and Ilupeju are currently attracting real estate investments.
Just as developers are besieging Lekki -Epe corridor of Lagos State for new real estate investments, old neighbourhoods on the mainland are also becoming centres of attraction for private investors with interest in real estate.
Some of these old neighbourhoods include the popular Yaba, Ebute-Meta, Surulere, Palm Grove and Ilupeju areas.
These locations have continued to evolve, blending historical importance with modern residential and commercial real estate developments.
Justifying reasons for the latest attraction, some of the experts have adduced central locations, easy accessibility, moderate land price, huge demand for quality accommodation and huge population as the attracting factors.
List of new houses in these old neighbourhood ranges from duplexes, bungalows, townhouses and mansions, while average house prices range between N50 million and N150 million.
Rental values for mini-flat in Akoka,Yaba are going between N1.2 million and N1.5 million per annum.
Yaba, as a neighbourhood, has continued to evolve, blending its historical significance with modern advancements in education, technology and commerce.
Apart from the presence of three tertiary institutions, Yaba now plays host to a lot of the technology startup companies steadily attracting investors and venture capitalists
It’s on record that the world renowned Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, also visited Yaba in recent times.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune recently, Professor of Estate Management and Housing at the University of Lagos, Gbenga Nubi, explained that most of these old neighbourhoods on the mainland have continued to undergo real development driven by the private sector.
He said:”Those neighbourhoods such as Ebute-Meta, Yaba, Ilupeju, Palm Grove estate are areas that are really going through real development.
“Traditionally when you look at those areas, they are the middle class neighbourhoods in their days but like property cycle, there’s always growth and decline. So they have gone through almost full cycle of growth and decline whereby there is actually need for ingestion. They still remain fantastic locations in terms of their centrality.
“If you are looking at Yaba today, looking at Palm Grove, looking at Ebute-metta, these locations are few minutes to the Island; few minutes to the secretariat even, if you are getting out of Lagos, getting to the airport.
“Those are things that young professionals are looking out for. Most of them are single, they don’t need big space and the market is responding to their needs. Most of them are single professionals with very functional, compact three bedroom, two bedroom, one bedroom apartment. They are single and rich. They are upcoming IT guys. They don’t need all these attachments, they are mostly with their laptops and they are doing great. Some of them are doing good works, some of them are working for two or three organisations and they are making their money. So they use one of the bedrooms for their office and the other bedrooms for where they sleep. So the market for them is very compact. They are in these locations, they are very accessible to the airport, accessible to the shopping malls, cinema, they can pick their snacks, they can live their club life in the morning, in the evening in the Island, you see them in Ikoyi and Ikeja, so it is fantastic.”
However, the professor pointed out that, inasmuch as the locations are right for real estate investments, lack of coordination of redevelopment of these enclaves has remained a major problem.
Nubi said: “One of the successes of real estate is location, but there’s a problem because the regeneration or redevelopment of these areas are not coordinated. They used to be low-density residential areas. Many of them now have been built to two, three floors. The number of people that are there are more and they are young guys that have cars. So, if you get to Ebute-Meta today, you drive there, you don’t have parking spaces, It is a problem when the regeneration is individual-driven and not government-led.
“This is a change that is not holistic. Everybody just takes advantage of what the market is and quickly redevelop a house. There is no connectivity between the units. In any neighbourhood of that size of different demographics, there is need for a playground and packing space, but you find out that all these areas have been built up, completely used.”
“ In most of these locations, there is a parking problem, there is a roof ware problem, there is pressure on infrastructure facility, there is pressure on electricity. So this will happen when urbanisation and regeneration are not guided. It’s just left to the market to supply. People just build as they like, they just develop as they like, no holistic way of looking at it. Those are the tending problems, but it will continue.”
Former Chairman, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Lagos Chapter, ESV. Samuel Offiong Ukpong, stated that security within these neighbourhoods, closeness to Lagos Island and huge demand for accommodation have made Yaba, Palmgrove, Ilupeju,Ebute-Metta choice locations for real estate investment lately.
Besides, he said these locations have been due for urban renewal.
“Now, look at Yaba, look at Surulere, up to Onipanu, Shomolu and Palmgroove, these are areas that are contiguous to Lagos Island, the central business district of Lagos. This a very big drive, and if you look at the distance between Yaba and Lagos Island, between Surulere and Victoria Island, you will see that the time save is quite huge. Therefore, the demand for these areas is high.
“Because the demand for them are higher, people can pay premium for them, somebody will not mind spending so much money that he could have used for transportation to Ikotun and add it together and pay for rent in Yaba or Surulere.
“So these areas are due for urban development or urban renewal and then the person’s that have the finances which are the real estate consultants are also moving in to carry out these development,” Ukpong said.
According to him, these locations have low density development, saying they were full of bungalow buildings.
“If you look at Shitta area, Akerele area and Ogunlana drive, those areas made up of bungalows. Perhaps, they built bungalows then because of the nature of the soil which could not support high rise buildings. But then, it could also be a function of funds as at that time. What funds were available for the indigenous owners? What could they afford? What is the expertise required to open the location up? What will the technological development be? So all these things added to the fact that those areas had a lot of bungalows that were built then and some of the areas were indigenous settlement on the road.
“So these developers that are coming for the purposes of urban renewal,” he said.
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