Dr. Ebenezer Oluwatoba Akinrinade is the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Gestpoint Nigeria Limited, a real estate company with the headquarter in Epe, Lagos State. In this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, the developer spoke about the Nigerian real estate and what the Nigerians in Diaspora are looking out for. He also spoke about his projects and other sundry issues.
Due to the current economic challenges, we gathered that people are not buying property as they used to be, what do you have to say?
We witnessed that a lot, especially for clients in Nigeria and in the disapora. What they don’t know is that irrespective of the economic challenges the country might be facing, the best thing to do now is to save through investment. The only investment that can help them to challenge this economic meltdown or inflation is to invest in land/ property because if every other thing fails, real estate will never fail. This is true because on daily basis, real estate appreciates. You cannot put N100 million in the bank in three months and expect to meet that N100 million intact. In real estate, if you invest that N100 million, I can assure you that in the next three months, that N100 million can be N120 million or N130 million because it will appreciate.
Can you tell us more about the developmental projects you embarked on since your company came into existence?
Currently, we have six estates in our portfolio. Our first estate is Champions Court located at Igbodu, Epe, Lagos State. We also have Gold City Estate at Ketu Epe, Lagos state; we have Emerald Estate Phase at Ketu, Epe Lagos state, Emerald Estate Phase 2 at the same place. We also moved to Ogun State. Our latest product is at Ibadan named Emerald Estate, Ibadan.
How affordable are your products?
The core vision of the company is that as we are looking forward, we choose to sell affordable products. Our real target is the low-income group. So our products are affordable. We also give them opportunity between two and three years to pay so that people can afford what we are selling.
Do we really have affordable housing in Nigeria?
Yes, we have affordable housing in Nigeria because currently, we are selling lands and we are not building. So it is affordable in the sense that, like our Emerald Estate in Ibadan, we are selling one plot for N1.2 million, and with that, you can spread that for one year with N100,000. With this stipend, corp members, graduates, artisans, civil servants have an opportunity to spread the payment to own, at least one plot of land in Nigeria.
How do you go about the issue of documentation?
I will divide the documentation into two. The documentation in terms of title and the documentation in terms of transaction – that is receipt, contract of sales, deeds and data documentation.
So let me start with the documentation in terms of title. Most of our lands are registered. They are already registered with the government. Others in Lagos are still under processing.
When it comes to title document, when you say you are buying from us, the first thing we give every client buying land from us is subscription form. This is the first thing before payment. This subscription form tells you the details of each of our estate. It shows you what we plan to do on this project. It is after that you make your first payment. The first thing you will get from us after that payment is receipt of payment, letter of acknowledgement and contract. Once you complete your payment you get your register survey in your own name.
The major challenge in the industry is getting titles from the government; so how do you think that can be made easier for investors?
That is why when you are buying land from a real estate company, the firm shoulders all those burdens. They are on one side talking to the government on behalf of the prospect.
Buying land from omo-onile is quite different from buying from the real estate company. The first thing any real estate company will do before starting to sell any property is to ensure it’s registered. The next thing is to apply for the survey, and once all these things especially registered survey is being done on the land, it will be easy for any subscriber to get his or her individual registered survey through the company he or she bought land from.
How challenging the process of C of O be?
The challenges are quite different from state to state. You can’t compare the challenges you are going to face in Lagos with the one you are going to face in Ibadan. Champions Court, Emerald Estate, Glamour City are all located in Ogun State. I started the processing of their C of O early last year and up till now we have not even got to where we’re expected to be.
The Glamour Estate that I started late last year, I already got it this month. Irrespective of filling for C of O’s processing or not, I think the first thing is to know the status of the land. Many people are just carrying what we called «title› on their head, title may not come immediately. Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) will not come out immediately, but what is very important that can give you assurance that the C of O will be out soon is the status of the land.
When you said status of the land what do you mean?
The status of the land simply means that, what are the plans of the government for that particular land you are buying. We have lands that are government’s committed, we have lands that are made for industrial and not for residential; we have land that are made for agriculture. So when you buy land that is meant for industrial or agriculture, it will be very difficult for government to give you residential’s C of O.
How do you get this status?
This is the first step you need to take when acquiring a land, and you can get that through your personal surveyor. Even if you are buying from the government, get your surveyor, your coordinates and go to very appropriate authorised government’s agency to confirm the status – the plan of the government for the land before buying. This is the major mistake many
developers and investors are making.
Why did you pick Epe as your headquarter?
The good thing for every businessman is to study where people are going or they will be going and plan yourself to go and wait for them. I know that if I go to Ibeju-Lekki, there is much competition there. The best decision I think I took then was moving to Epe to live there, so that I can study the terrain. After I went to Epe with my family, I stayed there, I don’t even know anybody but with the plan that I wanted to study the business and establish one or two things there. I discovered that after Ibeju- Lekki, it will be Epe. Why Ibeju- Lekki will look like a business hub, Epe will be the residential town that will accommodate a number of people.
So with that, I was able to study and then decided, calling other developers to come to Epe. As we speak now, I have close to 20 developers I brought to Epe. This is the major reason I chose Epe.
What are the price range of land in your estates in Ogun, Lagos and Ibadan?
The least of my property as we speak in Epe is N5 million. We have N7 million, we have N6.5 million and one of the estates had, already been sold out.
For someone buying into those estates, most especially in Epe, what is he looking up to in terms of infrastructure?
What we promised to deliver in term of perimeter is good gatehouse, good layout for the estate. Layout means each house must have its own access and drainage.
If you want to market this project to people in diaspora, what will be your selling point?
One thing about clients in the diaspora is this, we don’t really try to convince them, what we sell to them is security of their property because they have more information than many of us in Nigeria. They know the value of what they wanted to buy but their fear is that of the security of their investment. They want to know if the developer is trustworthy and his success rate.
What have been their response so far?
As we speak, we have more diaspora clients. Their response has been positive and many of them do send their relatives to come and verify. We do virtual inspection with them, we do virtual documentations and after they have completed their payment, we do allocation with corner piece for them. We send their documents to them.
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