Always Check Land Documents Before Buying’

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In this interview, Kolade Adepoju, the MD/CEO of Riel Homes, a real estate company in Lagos Island, talks about the market and its challenges and setbacks in terms of investment in property in Lagos and offers advice, including check of land documentation, to prospective investors

Tell us about yourself, and why you are so passionate in real estate?

My name is Kolade Adepoju. I’m the MD of Riel Homes. My passion for real estate, for me is something I believe all of us should have passion for. You know when you see how bad housing deficit is, how hard it is for an average Nigerian to own a house, even to rent is a problem how much more to own. And for us, for me it’s my own quota to empower the people, it’s my own quota to help a citizen of Nigeria in that regard. For example, we have our Riel Court Estate we have young people buying into it, we encourage them. I even give them more discounts to encourage them. We make attractive whatever incentive we are giving.

Give us your background in real estate and your key portfolio

I’ve been into real estate for some years now but officially Riel Homes is barely a year. Majorly for now we are basically into residential. We have a location in Ilara Epe, that’s the Riel Court. We have in Ishapati, that’s the Acolade. We have in Awoyaya. We are both into commercial and residential. But we started with residential. We are working on a future project on 1000 acres of land, a city on its own that would have residential, commercial and industrial in it somewhere in the southwest.

Tell us what you think about the Lagos property market and its challenges?

The market is huge and the challenges are huge too. A lot of buy land they have not seen and they may not see. I will like to use this medium to tell people that whenever you are buying the least you should do is to know where you are buying. That it is by going to the land and see the place. There are a lot of challenges but that’s just one of the major. That’s one of the major challenges. You have to know where your land is. When some people buy land they don’t get their allocation. For us if you buy you will get your allocation quarterly. We can give you instantly but we don’t want to be doing allocation one by one. That’s why we do it quarterly. So in those three months we do it together from time to time. That way buyer can mix up together with each other since they are neighbours, talk and connect.

A good number of people have suffered setbacks in terms of investment in property in Lagos. What is your advice for prospective investors?

Okay good, number one is to do your due diligence. Make sure that when you want to buy, take your time. For example even for us that are buying large, there are lands, many lands that we buy today even at the verge of paying we withdraw from it because we can’t risk money on it when we are not sure we cut off. It’s not bad for you to request from the real estate company to send you document that you want to check what you are buying. It’s your right. And if you are asking any real estate company and if they say they can’t give you then something is fishy.

What’s the ROI like with your projects?

I have done a lot of investments. Real estate is one of the investments that is secure and can give you the best return on investment. When we market we can streamline something. And when we market, we accommodate some people aside competition. We want to accommodate some people especially young people. So whatever we promise we are giving you is what you get at Riel Homes.

Housing finance is a crucial component of homeownership. What do you think about Nigeria’s mortgage system?

You know one of the major problems in Nigeria is corruption. You will some people that have nothing to do with mortgage and they are giving them money. Corruption is affecting us in that regard. You can’t just walk up to a mortgage company and say I have land come and partner with us, come and do this. You have to know somebody somewhere. You have to get referral. If everything works fine it would have made it easier.

Are banks really open to financing real property investment project by new entrants like you?

Banks are not really helping matters. The first land we were supposed to acquire I went to meet my bank that we need this amount, they said if it’s for another business fine, but for real estate, no.