Real estate investment has the potential to hedge growing inflation, create employment, reduce poverty, bridge the housing deficit, redistribute wealth, and enhance government revenue, an industry expert, Ebere Igwe, has revealed.
According to her, the sector remained roadmap to sustainable economic recovery, urging Nigeria’s government to take advantage of the sector for major turnaround.
To navigate through the current economic challenges and launch Nigeria on the path of sustainable economic development, Igwe urged government to be more decisive on using the real estate sector to drive Nigeria’s economy on the path of sustainable development.
She urged the government to begin to look in the direction of the real estate sector.
According to her, time to embrace a gradual shift from oil to real estate is now, adding that the sector’s capacity to deliver sustained prosperity and redistribution of wealth cannot be over-emphasised.
The sustained rebound of the sector aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, and its strong performance thereafter, according to the estate surveyor and valuer, was evidence of real estate’s pivotal power to drive economic transformation.
She said the sector could level up in contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as it is in countries of Europe and America, where it contributes about 18 percent to GDP.
“Experts have predicted a contribution of a minimum of 10 percent in a few years’ time, as against the present contribution which is very low,” she said.
She emphasized that the real estate sector “holds the key to addressing the growing unemployment in our country,” adding that the sector connects to the overall economy from a number of perspectives.
“ It reflects of the overall condition of the economy; it is also the physical infrastructure for economic activities either offices for businesses/governments, shopping malls or markets for retailers, hotels for tourists and business travelers, warehouses and industrial space for manufacturers and lastly homes for the populace.
“Though a reflection of the economic activities, it can also drive growth and job creation in the economy if harnessed with the right enabling environment by the different levels of governments – federal, state and local governments,” Igwe said.
The real estate consultant explained that by real estate’s very nature, the sector involves several value chains that involve labour at every level.
She said: ”Increased activity in the real estate sector will significantly address the nation’s unemployment challenges, support wealth creation and stimulate economic activities that would ensure that people have means of livelihood.”
“When people have means of livelihood, they will be able to pay tax, which is also used to refinance the economy and you have multiplier effects, and individual businesses thrive on the back of that. “Until we do this, we might be waiting for a fairly long painful journey out of our economic challenges,” she said.
As the country looks to reduce its poverty levels, she is of the opinion that real estate can provide a sustainable approach to getting people out of poverty and provide sustainable prosperity.
“There is no business that does not require real estate and there is no human being that does not require real estate, so the sector is key, the potentials are there, the opportunities are there, and now that a semblance of properly focused economy is appearing, if properly managed by policymakers and the government in particular, other sectors including the real estate would thrive,” she said.
Igwe charged professionals and players in the industry on the need to be more strategic, to advance the practice frontiers and in order to be more relevant in the nation’s landscape.
“So, in the intricate context of Nigeria’s economic challenges, the real estate sector offers a beacon of hope, offering potential amidst uncertainty. If properly harnessed, the Nigerian real estate sector offer the pathway to building a sustainable economic future.
“Significant investment in the sector, in addition to enabling business environment reforms and financing support for Nigerians can accelerate the sector and its contribution to the growth of the economy and GDP,” she said.
Looking at the current realities, she said there was no doubt that things are hard, noting that the federal government’s economic reforms; removal of fuel subsidies, currency exchange rate unification and some other economic policies had created waves of uncertainty and hardship.
According to her, cost-of-living crisis, biting inflation, skyrocketing prices of goods and services, were profoundly impacting the citizens’ purchasing power.
“Inflation continues to drive up prices of essential goods like food and fuel. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveal inflation rate of 33.40 percent in July 2024.
“For many Nigerians, this means that the struggle against rising costs is far from over.
“All the sectors of the economy are feeling the heat and impact.
Real estate sector for instance is being adversely affected by fuel subsidy removal, and this is aggravating the housing challenge. High cost of fuel, for example, has led to increase in transport fare, increase in cost of taking building materials to sites, prices of building materials have shot up, because producers of the materials rely largely on petroleum for energy, as electricity supply is not stable.
“These are having consequences on rent, affordability, housing delivery and house gap, defaults in payment and renewal of rents for commercial and residential accommodation.
“The social impact of the economic crisis, is becoming deeper and deeper, many Nigerians struggling to afford basic necessities, “ she said.
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