PART 1- ABOUT TO INVEST IN REAL ESTATE? READ THIS FIRST

We hear about opportunities springing up here and there, especially around Epe, and the Ibeju-Lekki axis, and we all want to invest and get a piece of Lagos, but very few people stop to ask themselves some very important questions before investing.

Agreed, the real estate industry is one of the most lucrative and surest bets when you talk about profitable investment, especially these days when inflation is becoming the order of the day.

This article and the next one will expound some of the things you need to consider when buying land in Lagos or investing in real estate. Gone are the days when people bank on the trust they have in friends, family, or colleagues.

YOUR BUDGET

This is one of the first questions to ask yourself. Having the desire to invest is not enough; will your budget be enough to buy and also secure the property with the necessary documentation? A lot of people think investing in real estate starts and ends with buying a property without any thought or idea about securing that property with the appropriate title documents. Can your budget foot the legal fees, the agency fees, the survey plan, and other expenses needed to take possession?

LOCATION

The location of the property is as important as your budget. The location of the property is one of the determinant factors in valuing a property. Yes, landed property does not depreciate but rather appreciates as time goes on but some areas tend to have more value than others depending on the potential growth.

LANDS UNDER ACQUISITION

When planning to invest in real estate for personal or commercial use, it is very important to carry out extensive research and find out the status of that land. Buying lands under government acquisition can be very troublesome and you also stand a chance of losing your investment. So many lands around the Ibeju-Lekki and Epe axis are under government acquisition and a lot of scammers have duped unsuspecting investors.

More so, some lands that may be free are also mapped out for either residential or commercial purposes and you need to be careful when getting such lands, especially the ones mapped out for a residential purpose and you intend to convert into a commercial purpose, it may be difficult to get a building permit to develop it. Do not for any reason settle for a committed land (lands that the government has committed for a particular purpose) even if there are buildings around it. It might take years but once the government decides to use that land, your building stands a chance of being demolished without compensation.

Follow us on our next post for the second part of this article and know all you need to know before embarking on any real estate investment in Nigeria.

You can read our previous articles on important land title document(s) you need to secure ownership of your land.

Don’t forget to also get your property surveyed by OTIC Surveys.