Infrastructure deficits killing Real Estate business in Nigeria — Austin Edafe
Austin Edafe Edegbe, MD/CEO Get Rich Global Concept Ltd, a Real Estate and Construction Work Company, in this chat with ISAAC OLAMIKAN proffers solutions to the challenges facing the Real Estate sector in Nigeria. According to him, just as the sector holds huge economic potentials, the role of the Government to provide infrastructures is pertinent, while professionals in the field must offer the best of services to the public. Excerpts:
Is Real Estate Profitable?
It is profitable. Real Estate is nature, something created by God. God created Real Estate the way He created humans. Being nature, Real Estate is always growing. For nature to grow, there must be Real Estate. Real Estate is a business for all. It is a business that puts food on every table. Just take a look at the aeroplane, if it flies up it is later coming down to the ground. When a man is given birth to, he is on the ground. Real Estate business in Nigeria has to be seen as a business that is profitable.
How has government policies affected the sector?
I don’t like comparing my country, Nigeria, with other countries to describe Nigeria as backwards. It would be better and patriotic if you appreciate your own country. Nigeria is the best country in the world. The government needs to wake up. We are going backwards in Real Estate. For any nation to get good dividends in Real Estate, there must be good access roads. Government must put needed facilities in place. In most of our rural areas, there are no motorable roads: Hence the localities are not accessible and these are the areas where Real Estate thrives. Real Estate is a process whereby a village is turned to a city. Far back in those days, places like Ibeju Lekki, Banana Island, Ajah and others on the Lagos Island, which are now populated by people of means, were forest areas: But when they were developed you can see the result. The government should wake up. We need motorable roads, constant power supply, potable water, among others. With all these, the Real Estate sector will boom. I want to seize this opportunity to send a message to the Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who was the former governor of Lagos State. He should work on his own sector well. He should ensure that federal roads are motorable. For the past eight years that he has been Minister, the situation of the federal roads across the country have not been commendable. We know that he has so much assignments that he is handling, but he should try as much as possible to increase his work rate. I am sending the same message to state governors and local government councils chairmen. If they do their own bit on the issue of motorable roads, it would create a multiplier effect to the advantage of everyone. I am giving kudos to the Edo State Government led by Governor Godwin Obaseki for turning villages to cities through road construction and rehabilitation. I am encouraging him to do more. More needs to be done.
You are not talking about other necessities…
Once motorable roads are constructed/rehabilitated in any area, other necessities like light and water will be easy to put in place. Today, many industries have folded up because of lack of basic necessities that need to be put in place by the government. Like I said earlier, many industries have folded up because of the problem of poor and irregular power supply. If Nigeria can boast of a solution to this, we will be better rated in business globally. God has blessed us with natural resources more than what is obtainable in most parts of the world. I am happy to be a Nigerian from Edo State. Edo State has the best land in comparison to other parts of the country. Once again, I am appealing to the government to give the issue of power supply an emergency treatment. If this is done and people stop relying on the use of generators, I assure you that the result would be very commendable and the economy would be the better for it.
What do you feel gives Get Rich the edge over others in the Real Estate sector?
The mission and vision of Get Rich Global Concept is to turn villages to cities. We are helping the government to develop cities. We don’t construct our estates inside cities. We go to the outskirts of the cities. That is where we locate our estates. Those in the communities where we locate our estates are happy because we create access roads for them. That’s what Get Rich Global Concept is doing that many other Real Estate companies are not doing. It is not just about selling land. Do you have the interest of the people at heart? That’s the question that I will love to ask fellow Real Estate companies. Let us create motorable roads, give the people steady power supply, buy electric poles, transformers and the likes, ensure that there is potable water so that your clients can easily carry on with their structure.
Which of your projects do you consider as a star project?
We have three star projects at hand in Benin City. We have two at Ugbowo – Lagos Road. One is Glory Estate located at a community called Ekowe. It is a fast selling estate and there are houses there that we are selling. We have a bungalow going for N45million, we have a duplex selling for N55million. We have land whose price is as low as N350,000. We want everybody in Benin City to be a landlord. God has given us that power – el. El means land. So anything that makes you have land, you become a landlord. Come and sleep the sleep that landlords are sleeping. In that our estate at Ugbowo you can get a land as cheap as N350,000, N500,000 or N800,000 as the case may be. We still create a package for civil servants. Being a civil servant does not mean that you’re poor. It only means that you will be paying by instalments as you receive your salary. It means that you can invest from N50,000 upwards. We also have another big estate along Benin – Abraka Road by Idogbo Bye Pass – Emwaren community. That is Graceland Estate. We have some other lands that we are calling on investors to come and invest in. You don’t need to wait to buy a land, you buy a land and wait. Buy the land now when it is cheap. We are telling all our investors, if you invest with Get Rich, within a year of your investment in landed property, you will get up to 30 percent return on interest rate. There is no other business that will give you such a huge amount of money. We still have one at Okun community called Overflowing Grace Estate. It is opposite 7up Bottling Company along the Benin – Lagos Road.
How do you foresee the future of Real Estate business?
Real Estate will boom in no distant future. A land, which for instance is now being sold for N500,000, would be sold for millions of naira in the near future. In future, we in the Real Estate sector can even be giving the government loans. The future of the sector is that bright.
